But just you go upstairs and lie down and I will bring you up a cup of hot tea and a bite of toast and very soon you will not want to slam doors or swear . '' `` Susan , you 're a good soul -- a very pearl of Susans ! But , Susan , it would be such a relief -- to say just one soft , low , little tiny d -- '' `` I will bring you a hot-water bottle for the soles of your feet , also , '' interposed Susan resolutely , `` and it would not be any relief to say that word you are thinking of , Miss Oliver , and that you may tie to . '' `` Well , I 'll try the hot-water bottle first , '' said Miss Oliver , repenting herself on teasing Susan and vanishing upstairs , to Susan 's intense relief . Susan shook her head ominously as she filled the hot-water bottle . The war was certainly relaxing the standards of behaviour woefully . Here was Miss Oliver admittedly on the point of profanity . `` We must draw the blood from her brain , '' said Susan , `` and if this bottle is not effective I will see what can be done with a mustard plaster . '' 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 Sir John French was superseded by Sir Douglas Haig and Susan dubiously opined that it was poor policy to swap horses crossing a stream , `` though , to be sure , Haig was a good name and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 XXXXX Walter was not home , '' Rilla wrote in her diary that night .
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