“He was up seeing about it to-day,” said Mr Dare. “And he’s hoping he can get into the Second Battalion if they form one. He’s put down his name for it anyway and I suppose he’ll have to go. I never knew him so keen on anything in his life before.” “Good lad!--The right sort! Does honour to his parents.” “And Con is expecting to be called up,” said Mrs Dare. “And I bet you Alma will want to be in it. Our two families are doing their duty. Da-ash it! If all the others would come up to the scratch as well there’d be no lack of fighting-men.” “And suppose they none of them come back,” said Mrs Dare forebodingly. “One never supposes such things, ma’am. If they go, they go to the duty God has called them to. And if they never come back they’ll have done their best for their King and their country, and that is the noblest thing any man or woman can do.” “I know, Colonel, but ... all the same, it would be very sore to lose them.” “It would be sorer still for Germany to ride rough-shod over England. They’re great fighters, and if it comes it’ll be hot work. Thank God, they’re not barbarians, however, and they’ll fight decently and respect the rules of the game.” But even in that thought Mrs Dare found but little comfort, and try as she might she could not attain to the Colonel’s altruistic heights of patriotism. “It is different,” she said to herself. “After all, his two are not bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, and that makes all the difference in the world.” “Where are they all to-night?” asked Mr Dare. For the thought that before very long partings might come unconsciously distilled within him a curious little desire to know they were still within reach. “Noel came up to have lunch with me and to tell me about the London Scottish. I understood he was coming straight home.” “He came and told me about it,” said Mrs Dare. “It has given him a new zest in life. He was on the links all afternoon, and then he insisted on taking the girls into town to ‘When Knights were Bold.’” “H’m!” said Mr Dare. “I must be out of touch with eighteen and a half. I can’t say I feel like the theatre myself.” “Young blood runs red,” said the Colonel. “The jump in it that makes him want to go to the theatre will help him through tight places later on.” “Do you think it will be a long business, Colonel?” asked Mrs Dare, in pursuance of her own thoughts. “Hard to say, ma’am. Personally I should be inclined to say not. The expense of all those men in the field will be so enormous,--to say nothing of the upsetting of business and life generally. One or two tremendous battles and it may be over. War is full of surprises. One side or the other may crumple up unexpectedly and cry ‘enough.’ On the other hand it is not easy to think of Germany doing that, after all her bumptiousness. And I’d hate to think of France and Russia giving in. Auntie Mitt is hard at work knitting winter socks and comforters, and Balaclava helmets.”