The Red Cross Girls with Pershing to Victory

Reconciliation

"I AM so sorry you have been ill, Bianca."

Carlo Navara had come into Bianca's room a few moments before with Mrs. Clark and now Sonya had gone out again leaving them for a few moments alone.

It was a fairly warm spring day and yet there was a little fire in Bianca's room, for the rooms in the old Rhine castle were big and bare and cold, with stone floors.

Bianca wore a little tea-gown of a warm blue woolen material and had a tea table with a tray upon it just in front of her.

She was pouring tea for her guest at the moment he made his last speech.

"Oh, there has been nothing serious the matter with me, Carlo," she returned. "I was simply tired and have been having a delightful rest. I believe when I arrived I said that I should hate to be ill in this dreary old building, but since things so seldom turn out as one expects I have really enjoyed it. Besides, I have promised Sonya that as soon as it is possible I shall go back to the United States and to school. The Red Cross experience in Europe has been a wonderful one, but now, as I am no longer useful here I must take up the duty, I turned my back upon. It is not going to be easy, Carlo, to settle down to a school girl's life after the excitement of war work in Europe. Yet I have the consolation of realizing that I am only going to do what many of our soldiers will do. Lots of the younger men have told me that if their families can afford to send them to college on their return they feel the need of education as they never felt it before coming abroad."

Bianca extended a tea cup to her visitor.

"Is this the way you like your tea, Carlo? Perhaps your taste has changed, but I remember this is the way you liked it in the past."

"But my tastes don't change, Bianca. It is your mistake to believe they do, neither my tastes in tea nor in friends ever alter."

At this Carlo and Bianca both laughed, although with a slight embarrassment.

"I am going back home too, Bee, very soon," the young man added. "This is one of the many things I wanted to tell you this afternoon, besides finding out that you were all right again. I talked things over with Colonel Winfield weeks ago and told him I was getting pretty restless and anxious to return to my work in the United States. I explained to him that a singer can't wait for his career as well as other men, since a voice does not always last a long time. However, I think this argument did not make much of an impression upon the old Colonel, but something or other must have, because he asked for an honorable discharge for me and I'm to go home when it arrives. I think the Colonel's chief reason was that I am not much good as a soldier here in Coblenz. He needs men like Major Hersey and Sergeant Hackett. Hackett is soon to be a first lieutenant, he should have been one long ago."

"I don't see why you have not also been given a commission, Carlo," Bianca replied, a little jealous for her friend.

Carlo laughed.

"I haven't the stuff in me for an officer, Bee. No one knows this better than I do. I am a fair soldier when there is something doing, but a poor one in routine. That is the real test. Don't mind, Bianca, and don't look aggrieved. I have simply tried to do my military duty like millions of other better men, but now I am going back to the thing I am made for. I was only a soldier for the time I felt myself needed.

"By the way I have been learning to sing "Siegfried," Bianca, studying with my old German singing master. He says I sing the music very poorly, but it has been fun trying to learn.

"I know one who lies
Fast in slumber deep
Sleeping age long sleep,
Waiting for thy waking."

Carlo's voice sounded clear and beautiful in the big room.

"If your hair were unbound and you were older you might look like Brunhilde some day, Bianca."

"You are singing better than ever, Carlo, I am so glad!" Bianca murmured, forgetful of herself.

She looked a little paler and more fragile after her illness, yet with her light yellow hair, her delicate features and large dark eyes prettier perhaps than her companion ever remembered seeing her.

"And the dancing, Bee, I gave that up soon after our talk. I did not need it for diversion after I began my music lessons. Besides, Miss Thompson has taught so many of the soldiers folk dancing and some of them are now so good at it that she no longer wishes me for her partner."

Bianca colored.

"I am sorry I told you I did not like Thea Thompson, Carlo. It is foolish to be prejudiced against people, isn't it? She has been extremely kind to me during my illness and both Sonya and I have learned to understand her better. Besides, I was prejudiced perhaps because of you," Bianca ended frankly.

But Carlo made no comment.

Never did it fail to interest him Bianca's strange combination of childishness and womanhood. But today she seemed almost altogether childlike.

At this instant getting up Carlo walked over to the mantel where he put down his tea cup and then stood looking down on Bianca.

"Then we are friends, aren't we, Bee? And I hope we may never misunderstand each other again. I have been worried over your being ill and our not being fond of each other in the old way. You may have to forgive me many things and perhaps I may have other friends in the future of whom you may not approve, but you must not think they will make me forget my loyalty to you."

Bianca was about to reply, but before this was possible Sonya Clark had opened the door and re-entered the room.

She glanced at Carlo Navara with a slight frown and then walked over and laid her hand on Bianca's fair hair.

"Bee is looking better than you expected to find her, isn't she, Carlo, and more like a little girl? I for one am glad her illness has turned her young again. The war in France has made most of us older than we were intended to be, but all the pain and struggle of it was especially hard upon a girl young as Bianca. I am going to take her back to New York as soon as Dr. Clark is able to return and after a year at school I mean to bring her out into New York society as my grown-up daughter. I have always wanted a real one and Bianca will be a lovely substitute. Don't you think she will probably have many admirers, Carlo?"

Carlo looked a little annoyed.

"I thought you had finer ideals for Bianca, Sonya, than to turn her into a society woman!" he answered with a slight change of manner. "But of course she will be charming. She is that already. And no doubt so many people will admire her that she will learn the pleasant art of forgetting her old friends. I shall probably be in New York only a part of each year. Yet somehow, Bianca, I hope you will always remain the Bianca I have known for the past three years. The war has made the time seem ever so much longer."

Again Bianca was about to reply, but Sonya glanced up at a little clock on the mantel.

"I am sorry, Carlo, but Bianca is not allowed to see any one but a half hour at a time. I know she regrets having to say farewell to you, but we are under orders. As for my ideals for Bianca, you need not fear. I mean to do all I can to help make her a gracious and lovely woman. And no one is ever to take Bianca for granted, Carlo, not even you. I think it may be good for her to know that there will be many persons who will think her attractive, as she has too humble an opinion of herself. Besides, every girl has a right to a few years of society and a little admiration. I am sure you agree with me?"

And Carlo was obliged to acquiesce.

Going back to his quarters, after saying goodby to Bianca, he realized what Sonya's words and manner must have meant.

She considered that he had been too careless of Bianca and perhaps thought her affection something which he could possess or lay aside at his own convenience. But if Carlo were angered at this idea, he also realized that there was a certain truth in Sonya's impression. However, in the future he meant to be more appreciative of Bianca's affection, and kinder to the young girl for whom he felt a brotherly affection.

CHAPTER XIX

A Warning

SOONER than he had hoped Major Hersey had an opportunity for a talk alone with Nora Jamison.

The passing days had wrought no change in his impression that there was something of a suspicious nature taking place in the German household in which he was billeted, a something which was extremely disquieting. Nevertheless, so far he really had no tangible evidence which made it possible for him to go to one of his superior officers. Unless he had some foundation in fact for his suspicion, it would scarcely be fair or just to involve the members of the Liedermann family in unnecessary notoriety and espionage. He must therefore watch and wait until he had discovered some justification for what at present was merely a vague idea.

However, there was nothing to prevent his suggesting to a girl, particularly one who was an American Red Cross nurse, that she try to avoid any appearance of intimacy or even friendliness with a German family, who might later be involved in a serious difficulty with the United States military forces in command of the occupied city of Coblenz.

Three days after reaching this decision, Major James Hersey was leaving the Liedermann house one afternoon just as Nora Jamison was in the act of entering it. Their meeting took place as Major Hersey was about to open the tall iron gate which led into the yard. Indeed he stood aside in order to allow Nora Jamison to enter.

Their acquaintance was a slight one, so that it is possible Nora Jamison may have been surprised to hear the young officer say to her in a hurried and confused fashion.

"Miss Jamison, I must speak to you for a few moments. Will you meet me in an hour under the big linden tree in the park where Freia and Gretchen tell me you are in the habit of playing with them? I am sorry to trouble you but I have what seems to me an important reason for wishing to talk to you."

In return, after studying the young officer's face for a moment with her large grey eyes, Nora Jamison quietly acquiesced. The next instant she disappeared inside the Liedermann house, the door being opened for her almost instantly by Frau Liedermann herself.

It was possible that the German lady may have observed their brief conversation, yet Jimmie Hersey had no suspicion of Frau Liedermann, who struck him as being an outsider in the family of her husband.