“I’ll trust Ray to see himself properly married, my dear,” laughed the Colonel. “Don’t you worry your pretty head about it,” and then with a touch of concern in his voice, to the Doctor,--“I hope they’ll not give you any trouble here, Rhenius. Some of the yellow rags are making something of an outcry against foreigners--enemy foreigners, I mean. You see, there undoubtedly is an immense amount of espionage going on, and folks are apt to run to extremes at times and lose all nice sense of discrimination.” The Doctor shrugged his big shoulders. “I was naturalised years before some of you were born. They will not trouble me,” he said with confidence. “If they do I’ll come to you for a character, Colonel.” XIX In course of time and on the principle that Heaven helps them that help themselves, the stranded English in Montreux formed a committee of repatriation, which met in a room placed at their disposal by the authorities of the Kursaal, and, by dint of much writing and wiring and hustling, towards the end of the month their arrangements, such as they were, were, with the assistance of Cooks, who had now returned to business, satisfactorily completed. The penniless were to be sent off first, then the rest by degrees in inverse ratio to their staying powers. Anxious as they were, for some reasons, to get home, Lois, at all events,--with the knowledge that getting home might well be but the beginning of sorrows--found herself full of regrets at leaving Montreux. The little inconveniences of their stay there had been gloriously impearled with the glamour of their love. They had been perfectly happy, and perfect happiness comes not often in life nor ever lasts too long. They had taken leave of their friends, and Ray had duly given the Vice-Consul a draft on Uncle Tony for the money he had advanced them. Monsieur and Madame and all the four demoiselles of the Pension Estèphe, and Anna the maid, had all come to the station to see them off, and were full of regrets at losing them, and now their train was jogging along towards Lausanne bound for Geneva. They had been instructed to take with them provisions for three days, within which time it was hoped the journey to Paris might--failing accident--be accomplished. And so they had, with the assistance of Madame of the Pension, provided themselves with much bread, and butter, and a tin of tongue, and a cold boiled fowl, and apples and pears and tomatoes, and cheese, and two bottles, one filled with wine and the other with cold tea. And they wondered if they would ever get through such a pile of eatables and felt prepared for a siege. Hand-baggage alone was to be taken, and theirs consisted entirely of their provisions, as everything else they possessed went into the rucksacs on their backs. Those who attempted to take too much had to leave the excess in the Consigne at the station, to be forwarded later if opportunity permitted.