It was over a month since the news had come about Jem . Nothing had been discovered concerning him , in spite of all efforts . Two or three letters had come from him , written before the trench raid , and since then there had been only unbroken silence . Now the Germans were again at the Marne , pressing nearer and nearer Paris ; now rumours were coming of another Austrian offensive against the Piave line . Rilla turned away from the new star , sick at heart . It was one of the moments when hope and courage failed her utterly -- when it seemed impossible to go on even one more day . If only they knew what had happened to Jem -- you can face anything you know . But a beleaguerment of fear and doubt and suspense is a hard thing for the morale . Surely , if Jem were alive , some word would have come through . He must be dead . Only -- they would never know -- they could never be quite sure ; and Dog Monday would wait for the train until he died of old age . Monday was only a poor , faithful , rheumatic little dog , who knew nothing more of his master 's fate than they did . Rilla had a `` white night '' and did not fall asleep until late . When she wakened Gertrude Oliver was sitting at her window leaning out to meet the silver mystery of the dawn . Her clever , striking profile , with the masses of black hair behind it , came out clearly against the pallid gold of the eastern sky . Rilla remembered Jem 's admiration of the curve of Miss Oliver 's brow and chin , and she shuddered . Everything that reminded her of Jem was beginning to give intolerable pain . Walter 's death had inflicted on her heart a terrible wound . But it had been a clean wound and had healed slowly , as such wounds do , though the scar must remain for ever . But the torture of Jem 's disappearance was another thing : there was a poison in it that kept it from healing .
The alternations of hope and despair , the endless watching each day for the letter that never came -- that might never come -- the newspaper tales of ill-usage of prisoners -- the bitter wonder as to XXXXX 's wound -- all were increasingly hard to bear .
Austrian Dog Germans Jem Oliver Paris Piave Walter beleaguerment month