"I wish you wouldn't look so dejected," whispered Irene, peeping up into Dalroy's downcast face with the winsome smile which had so taken his fancy during the long journey from Berlin. "I've been counting our gains and losses. Surely the balance is heavy on our side. We--you, that is--have defeated the whole German army. We've lost some sleep and some clothes, but have secured a safe-conduct from our enemies, after knocking a good many of them on the head. Some men, I know, look miserable when most successful; but I don't put you in that category."
She was careful to talk German, not that there was much chance of being actually overheard, but to prevent the sibilant accents of English speech reaching suspicious ears. Britons who have no language but their own are often surprised when abroad at hearing children mimicking them by hissing. Curiously enough, such is the effect of our island tongue on foreign ears. Monosyllables like "yes," "this," "it's," and scores of others in constant use, no less than the almost invariable plural form of nouns, lead to the illusion, which Irene was aware of, and guarded against.
Yet, despite the uncouth, harsh-sounding words on her lips, and the coarse Flemish garments she wore, she was adorably English. Léontine Joos was a pretty girl; but, in true feminine parlance, "lumpy." Some three inches less in height than her "sister," she probably weighed a stone more. Léontine trudged when she walked, Irene moved with a grace which not even a pair of clumsy sabots could hide. Luckily they were alike in one important particular. Their faces and hands were soiled, their hair untidy, and the passage through the wood had scratched foreheads and cheeks until the skin was broken, and little patches of congealed blood disfigured them.
"I may look more dejected than I feel," Dalroy reassured her. "I'm playing a part, remember. I've kept my head down and my knees bent until my joints ache."
"Oh, is that it?" she cooed, with a relieved air. How could he know then that the sabots were chafing her ankles until the pain had become well-nigh unbearable. If she could have gratified her own wishes she would have crept to the nearest hedge and flung herself down in utter weariness.