He watched the brave swing of the boys in hodden gray for a time with approving eye, till they fell out to munch exiguous lunches on the grass, which reminded him that he was hungry himself, and he went off to feed thoughtfully all by himself at a quiet little restaurant in Jermyn Street. Alma must be told at once. Sudden sight of the ominous news in the list when it was published would be very trying for her. He could break it gently and put a better face on it than, to his own mind, it actually bore. And then he must break it also to Mrs Dare and she would tell her husband and the others. But he nodded his head gravely over the whole matter as he ate, and was full of bitterness and wrath as those stories he had been hearing of ghastly brutalities perpetrated by the Germans even on the wounded came surging up in his memory. He cursed them heartily, and prayed High Heaven to requite them in full for all. But a couple of daintily-grilled cutlets, with crisp curly wafers of chip potatoes, and a nut of real old Stilton, and a pint of Burgundy, and a good cigar, induced a more hopeful state of mind. There were black sheep in every army of course. With all our care we had never been able to eliminate them entirely from our own. And war was a terrible loosener of the passions. But a victorious army was perhaps less likely to indulge in vicious devilry than a beaten one. At least one might hope so. Unless, indeed, the Germans had all gone Berserk mad, as some were saying. Con, busy with his wounded, had probably had to be left behind in the hurried retreat,--how hurried only those in the know really comprehended as yet. He was a non-combatant and there could be no possible reason for maltreating him. He was probably safe and sound in Germany by this time.... If only one had not heard all those devilish stories!... Even women and children! ... and the wounded!... God hold them to account for it all! By the time his taxi set him down at the big gate of St Barnabas’s, he was fairly himself again. He rang the bell and requested audience of the Matron. “Bad news?” she asked, with an anxious look, as she shook hands with him. “Might be worse--perhaps. He’s in the list as ‘missing.’ And that may mean anything or not so much. I thought I’d better let her know beforehand. The list will be out in a day or two and....” “I’ll send for her,” and she rang the bell and gave the order, supplementing it after a second’s hesitation with, “Tell Nurse Luard that her uncle has called to see her.” “It will prepare her for possible ill-news,” she said, “and she will have time to pull herself together.” “Yes,--thank you! I am going to assume that it is not really very bad news, though to tell you the truth----” “It leaves a loophole for hope, of course. But the Germans seem behaving very badly----” “Damnably,” jerked the Colonel. “--If all the stories we hear are true.”