Gertrude rallied and carried on . Lord Kitchener went to Greece , whereat Susan foretold that Constantine would soon experience a change of heart . Lloyd George began to heckle the Allies regarding equipment and guns and Susan said you would hear more of Lloyd George yet . The gallant Anzacs withdrew from Gallipoli and Susan approved the step , with reservations . The siege of Kut-El-Amara began and Susan pored over maps of Mesopotamia and abused the Turks . Henry Ford started for Europe and Susan flayed him with sarcasm . Sir John French was superseded by Sir Douglas Haig and Susan dubiously opined that it was poor policy to swap horses crossing a stream , `` though , to be sure , Haig was a good name and French had a foreign sound , say what you might . '' Not a move on the great chess-board of king or bishop or pawn escaped Susan , who had once read only Glen St. Mary notes . `` There was a time , '' she said sorrowfully , `` when I did not care what happened outside of P.E. Island , and now a king can not have a toothache in Russia or China but it worries me . It may be broadening to the mind , as the doctor said , but it is very painful to the feelings . '' When Christmas came again Susan did not set any vacant places at the festive board . Two empty chairs were too much even for Susan who had thought in September that there would not be one . `` This is the first Christmas that Walter was not home , '' Rilla wrote in her diary that night . `` Jem used to be away for Christmases up in Avonlea , but Walter never was . I had letters from Ken and him today . They are still in England but expect to be in the trenches very soon . And then -- but I suppose we 'll be able to endure it somehow . To me , the strangest of all the strange things since 1914 is how we have all learned to accept things we never thought we could -- to go on with life as a matter of course . I know that Jem and Jerry are in the trenches -- that Ken and Walter will be soon -- that if one of them does not come back my heart will break -- yet I go on and work and plan -- yes , and even enjoy life by times . There are moments when we have real fun because , just for the moment , we do n't think about things and then -- we remember -- and the remembering is worse than thinking of it all the time would have been .
`` Today was dark and cloudy and tonight is wild enough , as Gertrude says , XXXXX please any novelist in search of suitable matter for a murder or elopement .
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