But Elizabeth divined a coming crisis.

She went very white.
'Dear Mr.Mannering--I don't know what to say--except that the country seems to want everything that each one of us can do.' 'Have you read Haig's Order of the Day ?' 'Yes, I have just read it.' The Squire's eyes, fixed upon her, had a strange intensity.
'You and I have never known--never dreamt--of anything like this.' 'No--never.

But England has had her back to the wall before!' She sat proudly erect, her hands quietly crossed.

But he seemed to hear the beating of her heart.
'You mean when Pitt said, "Roll up the map of Europe"?
Yes--that too was vital.

But the people at home scarcely knew it--and it was not a war of machines.' 'No matter! England will never yield.' 'Till Germany is on her knees ?' His long bony face, more lined, more emaciated than ever, seemed to catch a sombre glow from hers.
'Yes--though it last ten years! But the Americans are hurrying.' 'Are all women like you ?' Her mouth trembled into scorn.
'Oh, think of the women whose shoe-strings I am not worthy to unloose!--the nurses, the French peasant-women, the women who have given their husbands--their sons.' His look showed his agitation.
'So we are to be saved--by boys like Desmond--and women like you ?' 'Oh, I am a cypher--a nothing!' There was a passionate humiliation in her voice.