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It should be almost invisible in the early morning mists, but against the green of spring and summer, or under the magnesium flares called by the English "starlights" with which the Germans illuminate the trenches of the Allies during the night, it appeared to me that it would be most conspicuous. I have before me on my writing table a German fatigue cap.
Tom meanwhile, joyous at heart, warm in temperature, and excited in mind, was groping on his knees on the damp grass outside the drawing- room window, fixing his two threepenny Roman candles in reversed flower pots, and planting his starlights, crackers, and Catherine-wheels in advantageous positions in the vicinity, casting now and again a delighted glance at the animated scene within, and wondering if he had ever spent a jollier evening anywhere.
From the Belgian trenches, fifteen hundred feet or so away, there was no sound. A German electric signal blazed its message in code, and went out quickly. Now and then a rifle shot, thin and sharp, rang out from where, under the floating starlights, keen eyes on each side watched for movements on the other. Sara Lee sat down under a tree and watched for a while.
The Allies' line had held, and in spite of their desperate assaults the Germans had been unable to find a vulnerable spot. Seymour passed his hand over his eyes. Against the darkness his fevered imagination pictured advancing "gray phantoms." "They come like demons from the hell they have created," he muttered. "I hope to God they don't use 'starlights' over our trenches tonight.
For sooner or later, according to the degree of susceptibility or responsiveness in the subject, there will come a moment when the milky-looking clouds and dancing starlights will suddenly vanish and a bright azure expanse like an open summer sky will fill the field of vision.
Presently, however, the wind got into the lantern, and the matches being by this time exhausted, and the starlights refusing to depart from their usual abhorrence for spontaneous combustion, the judicious Tom deemed it prudent to pronounce this part of the entertainment at an end. "All over!" he shouted through the window. "Turn up the light."
In the pure breath of the wind, as it gustily swept the earth, was a promise of things vernal, of the tender beauties of a coming spring; but there was still a keen, delightful freshness in the air, a vague reminder of frosty starlights and serene white snow the untrodden snow of deserted, moon-lit streets that quickened the blood, and sent a craving for movement through the veins.
Here and there, as they passed, one blew on his fingers, for the wind was bitterly cold. "In a few moments we must get out and walk," I was told. "Is madame a good walker?" I said I was a good walker. I had a strong feeling that two or three people might walk along that road under those starlights much more safely and inconspicuously than an automobile could move.
At last night falls. The evening artillery duel, except when a charge is anticipated, is greatly lessened at night, and infantry fire is only that of "snipers." But over the trench and over the line of communication behind the trench hang always the enemy's "starlights." The ambulances come up.
The streets were pleasantly shaded, and a leafy coolness pervaded the days, though sometimes, of afternoons, the still heat was almost stifling. A jaunt after supper often took me far into the country, and the starlights were softer than one's peaceful thoughts.
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