The Red Cross Girls with Pershing to Victory Part 19

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 subst.i.tute.

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 pa.s.sing 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 fas.h.i.+on.

"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 wis.h.i.+ng 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.

An hour later, when Major Hersey sought the place he had chosen for their appointment, he discovered Nora Jamison was there before him.

She was sitting on a small bench under a great tree filled with tiny flowering blossoms which scented the air with a delicious fragrance.

Evidently she was thinking deeply.

Nora Jamison's exceptional appearance did not attract the young officer, although she did interest and puzzle him.

Her short hair, her slender, almost boyish figure, the queer elfin look in her face, which made one wonder what she was _really_ thinking even at the time she was talking in a perfectly natural fas.h.i.+on, had a tantalizing rather than a pleasant effect upon some persons.

Yet once seated beside her Major Jimmie felt less embarra.s.sment than he had antic.i.p.ated. One had to believe in any human being for whom children cared as they did for this American girl.

"Freia and Gretchen talk about you always," he began a little awkwardly.

"I thought at the beginning of our acquaintance that I was to be their favored friend, but soon found you had completely won their allegiance.

But where is your usual companion, the little French girl?"

"I left her at the hospital today, Major Hersey; for a special reason I wished to make a call upon Frau Liedermann alone. But please do not let us talk about Freia and Gretchen at present though they are dear little girls. You have something you specially want to say to me and I must be back at my work at the hospital in another half hour."

Major Hersey was a soldier and Nora's directness pleased him.

"Yes, it is absurd of me to waste your time," he returned. "The fact is simply this. As I am billeted in their house for the present I cannot very well have failed to notice that you are developing what looks like a personal intimacy with the Liedermann family. I presume you know that the Americans in Coblenz, who have anything to do with the United States army, are not supposed to fraternize with the Germans. You may regard it as impertinent of me to recall this fact to your attention. I presume you consider that this advice should come from some one in more direct authority over you, but I a.s.sure you I only mean to be friendly. I have no real evidence for my statement, but I am under the impression that certain members of Colonel Liedermann's family are still extremely hostile to their conquerors. Moreover, you yourself realize that as the terms of peace are delayed there is not merely a sense of irritation and discontent with the present German government, but attempts are being made both secretly and openly to overthrow it. I have mentioned my suspicion to no one except you, Miss Jamison, which of course shows my confidence in you, but it has occurred to me as a possibility that Colonel Liedermann, or his invalid son, may be less reconciled to existing conditions in Germany than they prefer to pretend. Later, if a discovery of this character should be made, I would regret to have any one of our American Red Cross nurses drawn into such an uncomfortable situation."

Annoyed with his own confused method of stating a situation, Major Jimmie Hersey paused, coloring in his usual annoying fas.h.i.+on, as if he were a tongue-tied boy.

Yet his companion was looking at him without any suggestion of offense, and rather as if she too were pondering some important matter.

"Thank you for your advice, Major Hersey," she replied the next moment.

"Now I am going to ask you to trust me. I have a reason for going to the Liedermann house and I must go there perhaps several times within the next few days. Afterwards I may be able to explain to you my reason.

Will you trust me and not report my actions to any one for the present?"

With Nora Jamison's eyes facing his directly, although against his own judgment, there was nothing the young officer felt able to do but agree to her request. Yet it was out of order and it appeared to him that Nora Jamison was being vague and mysterious. It were wiser if she attended strictly to her Red Cross nursing. Surely some one of the other Red Cross nurses had told him that this Miss Jamison was not inclined to be especially intimate with any of them.

That same afternoon after several hours of indoor work, making out a report for his superior officer, Major James Hersey felt that he was rewarded for the day's duties by an afternoon ride with the Countess Charlotta.

As they had no other chaperon for their ride, Miss Susan Pringle had consented to accompany them, rather to Major Jimmie's consternation. He feared that she was taking an incredible risk with her own health and safety in order that her adored young countess should not be disappointed. Yet it was soon evident that the middle-aged English spinster was an accomplished horsewoman.

Along the Rhine that afternoon in the late April suns.h.i.+ne the water shone like rusty gold. High on the opposite hills the old feudal castles looked to Major Jimmie like the castles he had read of in the fairy stories of his childhood. Moreover, it was easy even for a prosaic soldier, such as Major James Hersey considered himself to be, to think of the little Countess Charlotta Scherin as the heroine of almost any romance, even of one's own romance.

CHAPTER XX

_Nora Jamison Explains_