But whether it is or whether it is not I must knit today or I shall go mad . '' `` Knit if you can , Susan , '' said Mrs. Blythe restlessly . `` I would knit if I could -- but I can not -- I can not . '' `` If we could only get fuller information , '' moaned Rilla . `` There might be something to encourage us -- if we knew all . '' `` We know that the Germans are shelling Paris , '' said Miss Oliver bitterly . `` In that case they must have smashed through everywhere and be at the very gates . No , we have lost -- let us face the fact as other peoples in the past have had to face it . Other nations , with right on their side , have given their best and bravest -- and gone down to defeat in spite of it . Ours is ` but one more To baffled millions who have gone before . ' '' `` I wo n't give up like that , '' cried Rilla , her pale face suddenly flushing . `` I wo n't despair . We are not conquered -- no , if Germany overruns all France we are not conquered . I am ashamed of myself for this hour of despair . You wo n't see me slump again like that , I 'm going to ring up town at once and ask for particulars . '' But town could not be got . The long-distance operator there was submerged by similar calls from every part of the distracted country . Rilla finally gave up and slipped away to Rainbow Valley . There she knelt down on the withered grey grasses in the little nook where she and Walter had had their last talk together , with her head bowed against the mossy trunk of a fallen tree . The sun had broken through the black clouds and drenched the valley with a pale golden splendour .
The bells on the Tree Lovers twinkled elfinly and fitfully XXXXX the gusty March wind .
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