"A curious tragedy--this, that has brought this child into our circle! Caroline might have made some other arrangement, but Pat's heart was set upon keeping her--and she will have her own way!"
"Pat's mother is too absorbed now in Celia to think much about it and when she returns Renée will win her love with her little face! What a story the child's life makes with just what we know! The family must have been American--evidently exiled; they loved this country, else why would the mother have made the brother promise to come back? I hope sometime we will know more about them!"
"Capt. Allan has promised to look them up as soon as he can!"
"Captain Allan----" Penelope breathed, her face flaming, then turning white. When her brother had told her Renée's story, so intent had she been upon the tragedy of little Renée and the poor Emile that she had not heeded the name of the American officer.
"Can it be the same?" she thought now, a wild fluttering at her heart. Then she sternly admonished herself. "Of course not! Don't be silly! There are hundreds of Allans and I don't even know that he joined the army!"
She said aloud, very calmly: "Love has given to Renée what money couldn't--she has been well educated, I believe! Her mother taught her, she says, and after her mother's death she went to a communal school near St. Cloud. She will help our Pat a great deal!"
"Yes, I'm very glad we have her with us! And now, Pen, I'll put you in command--head gardener, or whatever you want to call yourself! Raise your larkspur--only let a mere father be of what help he can! Things are pressing pretty hard at the Works--I can't help but fear that the winter may bring serious problems of unemployment and we must be ready to solve them! A few weeks will see the end of this war--it is in sight now! By the way, we are just completing the formula for a new explosive--more powerful than any the world has ever known! If the enemy knew it the war would end to-morrow!"
Penelope shuddered. "Why do we need it?"
"My dear, that little formula alone, scrap of paper as it is, will be a safeguard against future wars! The government is sending on experts to go over the experiments and the formulas. And, if they are satisfied, it will be my gift--the gift of my men--to our country!"
Penelope listened with divided attention, her mind not so much upon the wonders of shot and shell as upon the problems of the two little girls upstairs. She stared into the crackling flames.