The crystal globe slipped from numbed fingers into the fireplace. As though roused from a dream by the crash of its contact with the brass curb, the girl started and turned to her companion. He picked up the crystal, starred and fissured with its fall--henceforth useless. “Oh, Jim!” she cried in poignant regret. “We shall not see---- What is going to happen _this_ time?” She held his hand between her two, gazed up into his face in fond anxiety, yearned out to him. He put down the crystal, drew her close, enfolded her. “Love!” he answered. “Love--once more and for always! And, to us, dear, nothing else matters. It is the one reality.” In each other’s eyes they saw, with a perception transcending physical vision, the divine light of those sundered spheres that drew together. HELD IN BONDAGE Two French officers, wearing the red velvet bands of the medical service upon their caps, followed an old woman down the staircase of a pleasant villa-residence on the outskirts of Mainz. “The bedrooms will suit perfectly,” said the elder of the two officers, a major, in German. “And now a sitting-room?” The old woman led them along a passage and, without a word, threw open the door of a room lined with books. The two officers entered, looked about them. They were startled by a man’s voice behind them. “Good day, messieurs!” They turned to see a tall civilian, pince-nez gleaming over exceptionally blue eyes, fair moustache, fair hair cut short and brushed up straight from a square forehead, smiling at them from the doorway. “I am Doctor Breidenbach--at your service,” he said courteously in accentless French. The major stepped forward. “I am Major Chassaigne, monsieur. I--and my assistant, Lieutenant Vincent here--have been allotted quarters in your house. Here is the _billet de logement_.” He held out a piece of paper. “It is issued with the authority of the Army of Occupation and countersigned by your municipality. I regret to put you to inconvenience----” “Not at all! not at all!” interposed the German, affably, taking the billeting order. As his face went serious in a scrutiny of the document, the two officers had an impression of extreme intelligence and ruthless will-power. He looked up again with a nod of assent, his smile masking everything behind its gleam of blue eyes and white teeth. “Perfectly correct, monsieur! Please consider my house at your disposition. I am charmed to be of assistance to any of my confrères.” He smiled recognition of their red cap-bands. “Although you wear another uniform than that which I myself have but recently quitted, we serve in a common cause--the cause of humanity, _n’est-ce pas_? which knows no national animosities.” “We desired a sitting-room,” said Major Chassaigne, ignoring this somewhat unctuous profession of altruism. The German waved his hand about the room. “If this will suit you----?” “Your library, monsieur?” queried the lieutenant.