So now, unless a war crops up--and it doesn't look as though there's much chance of that!--I'm out of the running.

But if it ever does, Sara"-- he laid his hand eagerly on her knee--"I swear I'll be one of the first to volunteer.

I was a fool to give in to the mother over the matter, only she was simply making herself ill about it, and, of course, I couldn't stand that." Sara wondered why Mrs.Durward should have interfered to prevent her son from following what was obviously his natural bent.

It would have seemed almost inevitable that, as a soldier's son, he should enter one or other of the Services, and instead, here he was, stranded in a little country backwater, simply eating his heart out.

Mentally she determined to broach the subject to Elisabeth as soon as an opportunity presented itself; but for the moment she skillfully drew the conversation away from what was evidently a sore subject, and suggested that Tim should accompany her into Fallowdene, where she had an errand at the post office.