"You will drink a cup of milk before you go, won't you?" she asked, addressing Horace. "M. Maubin tells me that you are going to walk part of the way with him. You do not go all the way?" she added, wistfully. "I'd like to, Madame," answered the boy, "I'd love to volunteer. But they wouldn't let me. You see," he continued, "I'm an American and that counts me out. Deschamps is going, though." The woman looked at Horace with a sudden intensity that frightened him for a moment. He remembered having heard that the master's wife possessed strange gifts. But she shook herself out of her fixity of pose and continued, "And the school is closed?" "No, Madame," answered Horace, "the school is not closed. M. Maubin has put the school in our trust." "In your trust? In the boys' keeping?" she queried. "I don't quite understand." Whereupon Horace told the story of the appeal to the honor of the school and the One Word on the master's chair. The woman's face glowed with pride. "I will help you," she said, impulsively, "I will come to the school." Horace stiffened up. "Pardon, Madame," he said, "but the master's chair is not empty." The master's wife smiled at the lad's quick defense of his charge. "I had forgotten," she said, "it is a trust, yes? Then I will not come. But perhaps, after school hours, if there are any of the younger children who need help in their lessons, they may come here? This house will always be open to them." [Illustration: _Courtesy of "The Graphic."_ "PLEASE, COLONEL, CAN'T I JOIN?" The Boy Scouts of England, France and Italy have been of invaluable service during the war.] At this point, the door of the inner room opened and the master entered, in uniform. He looked quizzically at his wife. "I was afraid," he said, "that it would not fit. It is twenty years since I wore it last. And I am not as slim, dear, as I was then." "I altered it yesterday," she said, quietly. "Yesterday we knew nothing!" exclaimed the master, in surprise. "When the army was finally ordered to the front on Friday," she replied, "it was not difficult to guess that danger was very close. And, Jean, if there were danger, I would not need to be told that you would go." The schoolmaster put his arm around his wife as he handed her to her seat at the table. "Mark you this, Monroe," he said, "and remember it: The strength of a country is in proportion as its women are strong." "M. Maubin," asked the lad, as they sat down to their hasty meal, "before you go, I wish you'd explain to me a little what this war is about. Being an American, I'm not up on European politics, and I can't quite make head or tail out of the muddle. So far as I understand, Austria quarreled with Servia because the Crown Prince was shot by a Servian. That's natural enough, although it doesn't seem enough to start a war. Suddenly, Germany invades Belgium. What's Germany got to do with Servia? And where does Belgium come in?" The master glanced at his pupil.