would be alone in the house with her thoughts of Derry.

She got out of bed to say her prayers. With something of a thrill she
prayed for Derry's father. She was not conscious as she made her
petitions of any ulterior motive. Yet a placated Providence would, she
felt sure, see that the General's sickness should not frustrate the
plans which she had quite daringly made for his son.




CHAPTER VIII

THE SHADOWED ROOM

Derry had dined that night with his cousin, Margaret Morgan.
Margaret's husband was somewhere in France with Pershing's divisions.
Margaret was to have news of him this evening, brought by a young
English officer, Dawson Hewes, who had been wounded at Ypres, and who
had come on a recruiting mission, among his countrymen in America.

The only other guest was to be Drusilla Gray.

Derry had gone over early to have the twilight hour with Margaret's
children. There was Theodore, the boy, and Margaret-Mary, on the edge
of three. They had their supper at five in the nursery, and after that
there was always the story hour, with nurse safely downstairs for her
dinner, their mother, lovely in a low-necked gown, and father coming in
at the end. For several months their father had not come, and the best
they could do was to kiss his picture in the frame with the eagle on