The unseen guide beside the Thames

"I was in a very broad street leading down to the Thames Embankment and was looking out at the river and sky beyond. The Guide was standing just behind me ; our hearts were filled with anxiety for the country because of the war, and we were watching there to see what was about to happen. As I watched, I saw on the roadway and tramlines of the Embankment a number of open military wagons coming up filled with men, and gazing at them, I saw to my horror that they were not our own khaki-clad men, but strange soldiers dressed in black with a touch of red on their helmets. 'They are Austrians or Germans,' I exclaimed, and, with the thought that the enemy was here, the bitterness of despair seemed to overwhelm me; all that French women were feeling and suffering would now, I thought, be felt and suffered by ourselves, but the Guide, speaking very low, almost in a whisper, bade me take comfort and look again. ' These are not Germans or Austrians,' he said, 'but soldiers of the Allies ; and see, in the wagons behind them there are English soldiers!'

" The relief was so great that the tears ran down my face, and I stooped down and kissed the English earth. 'But the enemy must be very near,' I thought, ' or all these troops would not be here to defend London,' and for the first time in my life, I, who have always been so glad and thankful for my womanhood, felt that it was hard to have been born a woman — unable to defend my country for which such a passion of love had sprung up in my heart. ' Oh, why was I not made a man, so that I could have been a soldier now!' I cried, and the Guide answered, 'Is that very grateful to Me — you who have borne four sons to serve England — are you not ungrateful?' And I knew that indeed he was right. And then a question about the Guide himself flashed through my mind. 'Who are you,' I thought. 'Are you my father that you speak like this — are you God who made me? Are you a Spirit? Who are you?' I thought the Guide laughed very gently, and I turned round quickly, but there was no one there that I could see. ' Oh, where are you ? ' I cried, for a sort of panic seized me that he had altogether gone, or that he might be hurt in the strife that I thought was surely coming. 'Oh, come!' I called, ' out of this broad street, where there may be fighting soon — it isn't safe here!' and then in a moment it struck me what a comedy it was that I should be so distressed, and in such great fear for the Guide's safety and not for my own, knowing as I did in my heart that he was one whom the enemy had no power to harm at all.

"I stood alone now in the wide empty road, and looked at the tall houses on either side of it. The people living in these houses had clambered out on to the roofs to look at the troops, and to see what would happen. One man seemed to be waving his arms. I thought he might be a spy — or at any rate that he and others ran a great chance of being treated as such — so I called to them as loudly as I could to leave their roofs and go into safety; warning them that if they appeared to be signalling to the enemy, they would be in the gravest danger. I shouted to them, and I persuaded them to go indoors, but I could not help laughing as I watched one stout woman making her way with difficulty back into safety through her attic window. I turned then into a narrow side street, and passed through an archway into one of the houses."