We must win, George." He gave an uneasy little laugh, and glanced quickly at his mother.

Mrs.
Pendyce had begun to draw her needle in and out with a half-startled look on her face.
"That's a most haunting little song you sang, dear," she said.
Mrs.Bellew answered: "The words are so true, aren't they ?" George felt her eyes on him, and tried to look at her, but those half-smiling, half-threatening eyes seemed to twist and turn him about as his hands had twisted and turned about his mother's embroidery.

Again across Mrs.Pendyce's face flitted that half-startled look.
Suddenly General Pendyce's voice was heard saying very loud, "Stale?
Nonsense, Bee, nonsense! Why, damme, so it is!" A hum of voices from the centre of the room covered up that outburst, and Gerald, stepping to the hearth, threw another cedar log upon the fire.

The smoke came out in a puff.
Mrs.Pendyce leaned back in her chair smiling, and wrinkling her fine, thin nose.
"Delicious!" she said, but her eyes did not leave her son's face, and in them was still that vague alarm..