We shall need all our courage before long . '' Dr. Blythe did laugh at the breakfast table -- but he never laughed at Miss Oliver 's dreams again ; for that day brought news of the opening of the Verdun offensive , and thereafter through all the beautiful weeks of spring the Ingleside family , one and all , lived in a trance of dread . There were days when they waited in despair for the end as foot by foot the Germans crept nearer and nearer to the grim barrier of desperate France . Susan 's deeds were in her spotless kitchen at Ingleside , but her thoughts were on the hills around Verdun . `` Mrs. Dr. dear , '' she would stick her head in at Mrs. Blythe 's door the last thing at night to remark , `` I do hope the French have hung onto the Crow 's Wood today , '' and she woke at dawn to wonder if Dead Man 's Hill -- surely named by some prophet -- was still held by the `` poyloos . '' Susan could have drawn a map of the country around Verdun that would have satisfied a chief of staff . `` If the Germans capture Verdun the spirit of France will be broken , '' Miss Oliver said bitterly . `` But they will not capture it , '' staunchly said Susan , who could not eat her dinner that day for fear lest they do that very thing . `` In the first place , you dreamed they would not -- you dreamed the very thing the French are saying before they ever said it -- ` they shall not pass . ' I declare to you , Miss Oliver , dear , when I read that in the paper , and remembered your dream , I went cold all over with awe . It seemed to me like Biblical times when people dreamed things like that quite frequently . `` I know -- I know , '' said Gertrude , walking restlessly about . `` I cling to a persistent faith in my dream , too -- but every time bad news comes it fails me . Then I tell myself ` mere coincidence ' -- ` subconscious memory ' and so forth . '' `` I do not see how any memory could remember a thing before it was ever said at all , '' persisted Susan , `` though of course I am not educated like you and the doctor . I would rather not be , if it makes anything as simple as that so hard to believe . But in any case we need not worry over Verdun , even if the Huns get it . Joffre says it has no military significance . '' `` That old sop of comfort has been served up too often already when reverses came , '' retorted Gertrude . `` It has lost its power to charm . ''
`` Was there ever a battle like this XXXXX the world before ? ''
If as at before for in of on through to