"I guess you see all right!" he flung at her. "She's my future wife.
If you hadn't put this nonsense into her head we'd be married now and
she'd be here in God's country and not living with a lot of foreigners
who don't know a good woman when they see one. I want her back, that's
all. But I want her back safe. And if anything happens to her I'll
make you pay--you and all your notoriety hunters."
He went out then, and was for leaving without his hat or coat, but the
butler caught him at the door. Out in the spring sunlight he walked
rapidly, still seething, remembering other bitter things he had meant
to say, and repeating them to himself.
But he had said enough.
Mrs. Gregory's account of his visit she reported at a meeting specially
called. The narrative lost nothing in the repetition. But the kindly
women who sat in the church house sewing or knitting listened to what
Harvey had said and looked troubled. They liked Sara Lee, and many of
them had daughters of their own.
The photograph was passed around. Undoubtedly Sara Lee was living in a
ruined village. Certainly ruined villages were only found very near the
Front. And René unquestionably held a gun. Tales of German brutalities
to women had come and were coming constantly to their ears. Mabel
Andrews had written to them for supplies, and she had added to the
chapter of horrors.
Briefly, the sense of the meeting was that Harvey had been brutal, but
that he was right. An older woman in a safe place they might continue
to support, but none of them would assume the responsibility of the
crushing out of a young girl's life.
To be quite frank, possibly Harvey's appeal would have carried less
weight had it not coincided with Sara Lee's request for more money.
Neither one alone would have brought about the catastrophe, but
altogether they made question and answer, problem and solution. Money
was scarce. Demands were heavy. None of them except Mrs. Gregory had
more than just enough. And there was this additional situation to face:
there was no end of the war in sight; it gave promise now of going on
indefinitely.
Joifre had said, "I nibble them." But to nibble a hole in the Germany
Army might take years. They had sent Sara Lee for a few months. How
about keeping her there indefinitely?
Oddly enough, it was Harvey's sister Belle who made the only protest
against the recall.
"Of course, I want her back," she said slowly. "You'd understand better
if you had to live with Harvey. I'm sorry, Mrs. Gregory, that he spoke
to you as he did, but he's nearly crazy." She eyed the assembly with
her tired shrewd eyes. "I'm no talker," she went on, "but Sara Lee has
done a big thing. We don't realize, I guess, how big it is. And I
think we'll just about kill her if we bring her home."
"Better to do that than to have her killed over there," some one said.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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