Rilla spent an hour in Rainbow Valley that morning about which she never said a word to anyone ; she did not even write in her diary about it ; when it was over she went home and made rompers for Jims . In the evening she went to a Junior Red Cross committee meeting and was severely businesslike . `` You would never suppose , '' said Irene Howard to Olive Kirk afterwards , `` that Walter had left for the front only this morning . But some people really have no depth of feeling . I often wish I could take things as lightly as Rilla Blythe . '' CHAPTER XVI REALISM AND ROMANCE `` Warsaw has fallen , '' said Dr. Blythe with a resigned air , as he brought the mail in one warm August day . Gertrude and Mrs. Blythe looked dismally at each other , and Rilla , who was feeding Jims a Morganized diet from a carefully sterilized spoon , laid the said spoon down on his tray , utterly regardless of germs , and said , `` Oh , dear me , '' in as tragic a tone as if the news had come as a thunderbolt instead of being a foregone conclusion from the preceding week 's dispatches . They had thought they were quite resigned to Warsaw 's fall but now they knew they had , as always , hoped against hope . `` Now , let us take a brace , '' said Susan . `` It is not the terrible thing we have been thinking . I read a dispatch three columns long in the Montreal Herald yesterday that proved that Warsaw was not important from a military point of view at all . So let us take the military point of view , doctor dear . '' `` I read that dispatch , too , and it has encouraged me immensely , '' said Gertrude . `` I knew then and I know now that it was a lie from beginning to end . But I am in that state of mind where even a lie is a comfort , providing it is a cheerful lie . '' `` In that case , Miss Oliver dear , the German official reports ought to be all you need , '' said Susan sarcastically . `` I never read them now because they make me so mad I can not put my thoughts properly on my work after a dose of them . Even this news about Warsaw has taken the edge off my afternoon 's plans . Misfortunes never come singly . I spoiled my baking of bread today -- and now Warsaw has fallen -- and here is little Kitchener bent on choking himself to death . ''
Jims was evidently trying XXXXX swallow his spoon , germs and all .
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