The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Journal of Impressions in Belgium, by May Sinclair.

[16] I have heard a distinguished alienist say that this reminiscent sensation is a symptom of approaching insanity. As it is not at all uncommon, there must be a great many lunatics going about.

[17] Except that nobody had any time to attend to us, I can't think why we weren't all four of us arrested for spies. We hadn't any business to be looking for the position of the Belgian batteries.

[18] More than likely our appearance there stopped the firing.

[19] I have since been told that he was not. And I think in any case I am wrong about his "matchboard" car. It must have been somebody else's. In fact, I'm very much afraid that "he" was somebody else—that I hadn't the luck really to meet him.

[20] He did. She was not a lady whom it was possible to leave behind on such an expedition.

[21] I'm inclined to think it may have been the dogs of Belgium, after all. I can't think where the guns could have been. Antwerp had fallen. It might have been the bombardment of Melle, though.

[22] The fate of "Mr. Lambert" and the scouting-car was one of those things that ought never to have happened. It turned out that the car was not the property of his paper, but his own car, hired and maintained by him at great expense; that this brave and devoted young American had joined our Corps before it left England and gone out to the front to wait for us. And he was kept waiting long after we got there.

But if he didn't see as much service at Ghent as he undertook to see (though he did some fine things on his own even there), it was made up to him in Flanders afterwards, when, with the Commandant and other members of the Corps, he distinguished himself by his gallantry at Furnes and in the Battle of Dixmude.

(For an account of his wife's services see Postscript.)

[23] I record these details (March 11th, 1915) because the Commandant accused me subsequently of a total lack of "balance" upon this occasion.

[24] This is no reflection on Tom's courage. His chief objection was to driving three women so near the German lines. The same consideration probably weighed with the Commandant and M. ——.

[25] The whole thing was a piece of rank insubordination. The Commandant was entirely right to forbid the expedition, and we were entirely wrong in disobeying him. But it was one of those wrong things that I would do again to-morrow.

[26] Antwerp had surrendered on Friday, the 9th.

[27] All the same it was splendidly equipped and managed.

[28] Even now, when I am asked if I did any nursing when I was in Belgium I have to think before I answer: "Only for one morning and one night"—it would still be much truer to say, "I was nursing all the time."

[29] My Day-Book ends abruptly here; and I have no note of the events that followed.

[30] Incorrect. It was, I believe, the uniform of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry Corps.

[31] It was so bad that it made me forget to pack the Commandant's Burberry and his Gillette razors and his pipe.

[32] The Commandant had had an adventure. The Belgian guide mistook the road and brought the car straight into the German lines instead of the British lines where it had been sent. If the Germans hadn't been preoccupied with firing at that moment, the Commandant and Ascot and the Belgian would all have been taken prisoner.

[33] Even now, five months after, I cannot tell whether it was or was not insanity.

[34] It is really dreadful to think of the nuisance we must have been to these dear people on the eve of their own flight.

[35] The Commandant had his own scheme for going back to Ghent, which fortunately he did not carry out.

[36] This girl's courage and self-devotion were enough to establish our innocence—they needed no persuasion. But I still hold myself responsible for her going, since it was my failure to control my obsession that first of all put the idea in her head.

[37] I saw nothing sinister about this arrangement at the time. It seemed incredible to me that I should not return.

[38] Having saved the suit-case, I guarded it as a sacred thing. But Dr. Hanson's best clothes and her surgical instruments were in the tin box after all.

The Return of the Prodigal

"These are stories to be read leisurely with a feeling for the stylish and the careful workmanship which is always a part of May Sinclair's work. They need no recommendation to those who know the author's work and one of the things on which we may congratulate ourselves is the fact that so many Americans are her reading friends."—Kansas City Gazette-Globe.

"They are the product of a master workman who has both skill and art, and who scorns to produce less than the best."—Buffalo Express.

"Always a clever writer, Miss Sinclair at her best is an exceptionally interesting one, and in several of the tales bound together in this new volume we have her at her best."—N. Y. Times.

" ... All of which show the same sensitive apprehension of unusual cases and delicate relations, and reveal a truth which would be hidden from the hasty or blunt observer."—Boston Transcript.

"One of the best of the many collections of stories published this season."—N. Y. Sun.

" ... All these stories are of deep interest because all of them are out of the rut."—Kentucky Post.

"Let no one who cares for good and sincere work neglect this book."—London Post.

"The stories are touched with a peculiar delicacy and whimsicality."—Los Angeles Times.

The Three Sisters

By MAY SINCLAIR

Author of "The Divine Fire," "The Return of the Prodigal," etc.

Every reader of "The Divine Fire," in fact every reader of any of Miss Sinclair's books, will at once accord her unlimited praise for her character work. "The Three Sisters" reveals her at her best. It is a story of temperament, made evident not through tiresome analyses but by means of a series of dramatic incidents. The sisters of the title represent three distinct types of womankind. In their reaction under certain conditions Miss Sinclair is not only telling a story of tremendous interest but she is really showing a cross section of life.

"Once again Miss Sinclair has shown us that among the women writers to-day she can be acclaimed as without rival in the ability to draw a character and to suggest atmosphere.... In "The Three Sisters" she gives full measure of her qualities. It is in every way a characteristic novel."—London Standard.

"Miss Sinclair's singular power as an artist lies in her identification with nature.... She has seldom written a more moving story."—Metropolitan.

"It is a book powerful alike in its description of the background and in its analysis of character.... This story confirms the impression of her unusual ability."—Outlook.

"'The Three Sisters' is a powerful novel, written with both vigor and delicacy, dramatic, absorbingly interesting."—New York Times.

The Pentecost of Calamity

The author of "The Virginian" has written a new book which describes, more forcibly and clearly than any other account so far published, the meaning, to America, of the tragic changes which are taking place in the hearts and minds of the German people.

Written with ease and charm of style, it is prose that holds the reader for its very beauty, even as it impresses him with its force. It is doubtful whether there will come out of the entire mass of war literature a more understanding or suggestive survey.

"Owen Wister has depicted the tragedy of Germany and has hinted at the possible tragedy of the United States.... We wish it could be read in full by every American."—The Outlook.

The Military Unpreparedness of the United
States

By many army officers the author of this work is regarded as the foremost military expert in the United States. For nine years he has been striving to awaken the American people to a knowledge of the weaknesses of their land forces and the defencelessness of the country. Out of his extensive study and research he has compiled the present volume, which represents the last word on this subject. It comes at a time when its importance cannot be overestimated, and in the eight hundred odd pages given over to the discussion there are presented facts and arguments with which every citizen should be familiar. Mr. Huidekoper's writings in this field are already well known. These hitherto, however, have been largely confined to magazines and pamphlets, but his book deals with the matters under consideration with that frankness and authority evidenced in these previous contributions and much more comprehensively.

With the Russian Army

This book deals with the author's experiences in the war area. The work traces the cause of the war from the treaty of 1878 through the Balkan situation. It contains many facts drawn from personal observation, for Col. McCormick has had opportunities such as have been given to no other man during the present engagements. He has been at the various headquarters and actually in the trenches. One of the most interesting chapters of the volume is the concluding one dealing with great personalities of the war from first-hand acquaintance.

The work contains a considerable amount of material calculated to upset generally accepted ideas, comparisons of the fighting forces, and much else that is fresh and original.

The World War:

The present war in Europe has called forth a great many books bearing on its different phases, but in the majority of instances these have been written from the standpoint of some one of the nations. Elbert Francis Baldwin has here, however, brought together within the compass of a single volume a survey of the entire field.

Mr. Baldwin was in Europe at the outbreak of hostilities. He mingled with the people, observing their spirit and temper more intimately than it has been permitted most writers to do, and in consequence the descriptions which he gives of the German, or French, or English, or Russian attitude are truer and more complete than those found in previous studies of the war. Mr. Baldwin's statements are calm and just in conclusion. When discussing the German side he has included all of the factors which the Germans think important, and assimilated wholly the German feeling, as he has done in his considerations of the other countries.

"The one indispensable volume so far published for those who desire a comprehensive survey of the situation.... One of the most valuable contributions to the literature of the World War."—Portland Express.

"The dramatic story ... is unusually calm and dispassionate, after the modern historical manner, with a great deal of fresh information."—Philadelphia North American.

"Sets down without bias the real causes of the Great War."—New York Times.

Russia and the World

By STEPHEN GRAHAM

Author of "With the Russian Pilgrims to Jerusalem," "With Poor Immigrants
to America," etc.

At the outbreak of the present European war Mr. Graham was in Russia, and his book opens, therefore, with a description of the way the news of war was received on the Chinese frontier, one thousand miles from a railway station, where he happened to be when the Tsar's summons came. Following this come other chapters on Russia and the War, considering such questions as, Is It a Last War?, Why Russia Is Fighting, The Economic Isolation of Russia, An Aeroplane Hunt at Warsaw, Suffering Poland: A Belgium of the East, and The Soldier and the Cross.

But "Russia and the World" is not by any means wholly a war book. It is a comprehensive survey of Russian problems. Inasmuch as the War is at present one of her problems, it receives its due consideration. It has been, however, Mr. Graham's intention to supply the very definite need that there is for enlightenment in English and American circles as to the Russian nation, what its people think and feel on great world matters. On almost every country there are more books and more concrete information than on his chosen land. In fact, "Russia and the World" may be regarded as one of the very first to deal with it in any adequate fashion.

"It shows the author creeping as near as he was allowed to the firing line. It gives broad views of difficult questions, like the future of the Poles and the Jews. It rises into high politics, forecasts the terms of peace and the rearrangement of the world, east and west, that may follow. But the salient thing in it is its interpretation for Western minds of the spirit of Russia."—London Times.

German World Policies

Paul Rohrbach has been for several years the most popular author of books on politics and economics in Germany. He is described by his translator as a "constructive optimist," one who, at the same time, is an incisive critic of those shortcomings which have kept Germany, as he thinks, from playing the great part to which she is called. In this volume Dr. Rohrbach gives a true insight into the character of the German people, their aims, fears and aspirations.

Though it was written before the war started and has not been hastily put together, it still possesses peculiar significance now, for in its analysis of the German idea of culture and its dissemination, in its consideration of German foreign policies and moral conquests, it is an important contribution to the widespread speculation now current on these matters.

"Dr. von Mach renders an extraordinary service to his country in making known to English readers at this time a book like Rohrbach's."—New York Globe.

"A clear insight into Prussian ideals."—Boston Transcript.

"A valuable, significant, and most informing book."—New York Tribune.