3
The light faded, replaced by the artificial blink of a car that was rusty by day, and screeched embarassingly. A tall figure got out, and even the darkness could not hide the bright flame of his hair. A smile played on his lips when he recognized the girl on the porch, and Jane smiled back involuntarily.
"How nice to see you, Gilbert Ford!" she cried impulsively.
"Do they always keep such lovely ladies on the porch at Lantern Corners?" Gil asked playfully.
"What brings you here?" Jane asked directly.
"To see that which graces the porches of Queen's Shore." Gil responded.
Jane's laugh was rosy and jovial. "You're embarrassing me with your flattery." she pointed out plainly.
"Look here, won't you come for a drive then?" Gil Ford winked.
"Not unless you tell me what brought you to Lantern Corners."
"To take you out for a drive."
Jane yielded.
"How's the political seance in there? Any heated brawls yet?"
Jane shook her brown head dully. "Oh, the thought of war is simply awful. I will be beside myself with worry if any of my - of you - boys go." Jane flushed. "As if it wasn't enough that Dad went through it twenty years ago!"
"Don't think about it, then." Gil said gently.
Jane suddenly felt ashamed of herself for baring her emotions so plainly. She ransacked her brains for a way to lighten the mood.
"What is it all but a struggle of ants,
In the gleam of a million million suns?"
Gil quoted lightly.
Gil had an easy, careless manner which irked and intrigued Jane. He drove fast - they whirred through the night, the night winds, the night woods, in the parts of the world that Jane loved best. Jane dared not let herself imagine what might happen to hills and valleys as lovely as these in the ravages of war. Gil talked of many things and Jane laughed often, both their youthful eyes and hair snapping in the wind.
Jane was tired to the bone from her work, her worries over the world, and feverishly alert with the afterglow of her hour of dissipation when she went to her little spool bed. But only five minutes after she had undressed, a dainty figure charged in.
"Robbie! What are you doing up at this hour?" Jane demanded.
"How was it?" Robbie winked archly. In a moment Jane guessed that Robbie had put Gil up to it - rang Four Winds and gotten one of the Ford brothers to tell Gil Ford she needed a lift home from Lantern Corners, no doubt. She felt like a pricked balloon.
"Stimulating, like all my evenings at Min's." she chose to interpret Robbie's question naively. "I had a debate with Ding-Dong and with Young John. Ding-Dong is turning out to be far more intelligent than I ever gave him credit for." Jane mused.
Robbie paused, and Jane half-expected her to pursue the point. But then she asked, plaintively,
"You were talking about the war, weren't you?"
"What war?" Jane asked.
Robbie told Jane what had happened that afternoon in a frightened voice. For once Jane could not find the words to comfort her. None of her thoughts were reassuring. Jane rocked her sister back and forth in a long hug.
"War is coming, isn't it Jane? War is coming, there's nothing you can do to stop it." Robbie half-sobbed, half-pleaded.
