` Hindenburg has kept his word hitherto , ' said Gertrude , as gloomily as Cousin Sophia herself could have said it . '' ` Yes , fighting against the Russians and Rumanians , ' retorted Susan . ` Wait you till he comes up against the British and French , not to speak of the Yankees , who are getting there as fast as they can and will no doubt give a good account of themselves . ' '' ` You said just the same thing before Mons , Susan , ' I reminded her . '' ` Hindenburg says he will spend a million lives to break the Allied front , ' said Gertrude . ` At such a price he must purchase some successes and how can we live through them , even if he is baffled in the end . These past two months when we have been crouching and waiting for the blow to fall have seemed as long as all the preceding months of the war put together . I work all day feverishly and waken at three o'clock at night to wonder if the iron legions have struck at last . It is then I see Hindenburg in Paris and Germany triumphant . I never see her so at any other time than that accursed hour . ' `` Susan looked dubious over Gertrude 's adjective , but evidently concluded that the ` a ' saved the situation . '' ' I wish it were possible to take some magic draught and go to sleep for the next three months -- and then waken to find Armageddon over , ' said mother , almost impatiently . `` It is not often that mother slumps into a wish like that -- or at least the verbal expression of it . Mother has changed a great deal since that terrible day in September when we knew that Walter would not come back ; but she has always been brave and patient . Now it seemed as if even she had reached the limit of her endurance . `` Susan went over to mother and touched her shoulder . '' ` Do not you be frightened or downhearted , Mrs. Dr. dear , ' she said gently . ' I felt somewhat that way myself last night , and I rose from my bed and lighted my lamp and opened my Bible ; and what do you think was the first verse my eyes lighted upon ? It was ` And they shall fight against thee but they shall not prevail against thee , for I am with thee , saith the Lord of Hosts , to deliver thee . ' I am not gifted in the way of dreaming , as Miss Oliver is , but I knew then and there , Mrs. Dr. dear , that it was a manifest leading , and that Hindenburg will never see Paris .
So I read no further but went back to my bed and I did not waken at three o'clock or at any other hour XXXXX morning . '
against as before for if over since that till with