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 Jem 's wound -- all were increasingly hard to bear . Gertrude Oliver turned her head . There was an odd brilliancy in her eyes . `` Rilla , I 've had another dream . '' `` Oh , no -- no , '' cried Rilla , shrinking . Miss Oliver 's dreams had always foretold coming disaster . `` Rilla , it was a good dream . Listen -- I dreamed just as I did four years ago , that I stood on the veranda steps and looked down the Glen . And it was still covered by waves that lapped about my feet . But as I looked the waves began to ebb -- and they ebbed as swiftly as , four years ago , they rolled in -- ebbed out and out , to the gulf ; and the Glen lay before me , beautiful and green , with a rainbow spanning Rainbow Valley -- a rainbow of such splendid colour that it dazzled me -- and I woke . Rilla -- Rilla Blythe -- the tide has turned . '' `` I wish I could believe it , '' sighed Rilla . `` Sooth was my prophecy of fear Believe it when it augurs cheer , '' quoted Gertrude , almost gaily . `` I tell you I have no doubt . '' Yet , in spite of the great Italian victory at the Piave that came a few days later , she had doubt many a time in the hard month that followed ; and when in mid-July the Germans crossed the Marne again despair came sickeningly . It was idle , they all felt , to hope that the miracle of the Marne would be repeated . But it was : again , as in 1914 , the tide turned at the Marne .
The French and the American troops struck their sudden smashing blow on the exposed flank of the enemy and , with the almost inconceivable rapidity of a dream , the whole aspect XXXXX the war changed .
about as before in of on that though to with