There was an eagerness, a warmth of welcome in Mrs. Otway's manner of which she was unconscious, but which gave a sudden shock of pleasure, aye, and perhaps even more than pleasure, to her visitor. He had expected to find her anxious, depressed, troubled--above all, deeply saddened by the dreadful thing having come to pass which she had so often vehemently declared would never, never happen. They shook hands, but before she could go on to utter one of the many questions which were on her lips, Major Guthrie spoke. "I've come to say good-bye," he said abruptly. "I've had my marching orders!" There was a strange light in the dark blue eyes which were the one beautiful feature he had acquired from his very handsome mother. "I--I don't understand----" And she really didn't. What could he mean? His marching orders? But he had left the Army four or five years ago. Besides, the Dean had told her only that morning that no portion of the British Army was going to the Continent--that on England's part this was only going to be a naval war. The Dean had heard this fact from a friend in London, a distinguished German professor of Natural Theology, who was a very frequent visitor to the Deanery. Major Guthrie slightly lowered his voice: "I had the telegram an hour ago," he explained. "I thought you knew that I was in the Reserve, that I form part of what is called the Expeditionary Force." "The Expeditionary Force?" she repeated in a bewildered tone. "I didn't know there was such a thing! You never told me about it." "Well, you've never been interested in such matters." Major Guthrie smiled at her indulgently, and suddenly she realised that when they were together she generally talked of her own concerns, very, very seldom of his. But what was this he was now saying? "Besides, it's by way of being a secret. That's the real reason I haven't been out the last few days. I didn't feel I could leave home for even five minutes. I've been on tenterhooks--in fact it will take me two or three days to get fit again. You see, I couldn't say anything to anybody! And one heard such absurd rumours--rumours that the Government didn't mean to send any troops to the Continent--that they had been caught napping--that the transport arrangements had broken down, and so on. However, it's all right now! I report myself to-night; rejoin my old regiment to-morrow; and--well, in three or four days, please God, I shall be in France, and in a week at latest in Belgium." Mrs. Otway looked at him silently. She was too much surprised to speak. She felt moved, oppressed, excited. A British Army going to France--to Belgium? It seemed incredible! And Major Guthrie also felt moved and excited, but _he_ was not oppressed--he was triumphant, overjoyed. "I thought you'd understand," he said, and there was a little break in his voice. "It's made me feel a young man again--that's what it's done!" "How does your mother take it?" asked Mrs. Otway slowly.