At all events , though he told her grumpily that she had made a nice fool of herself , and would live to regret it , he said nothing worse , and Mrs. Joe put on her apron and went to work as usual , while Sir Wilfrid Laurier , who had a poor opinion of lighthouses for winter residences , went to sleep in his pet nook behind the woodbox , a thankful dog that he was done with war-weddings . CHAPTER XIX `` THEY SHALL NOT PASS '' One cold grey morning in February Gertrude Oliver wakened with a shiver , slipped into Rilla 's room , and crept in beside her . `` Rilla -- I 'm frightened -- frightened as a baby -- I 've had another of my strange dreams . Something terrible is before us -- I know . '' `` What was it ? '' asked Rilla . `` I was standing again on the veranda steps -- just as I stood in that dream on the night before the lighthouse dance , and in the sky a huge black , menacing thunder cloud rolled up from the east . I could see its shadow racing before it and when it enveloped me I shivered with icy cold . Then the storm broke -- and it was a dreadful storm -- blinding flash after flash and deafening peal after peal , driving torrents of rain . I turned in panic and tried to run for shelter , and as I did so a man -- a soldier in the uniform of a French army officer -- dashed up the steps and stood beside me on the threshold of the door . His clothes were soaked with blood from a wound in his breast , he seemed spent and exhausted ; but his white face was set and his eyes blazed in his hollow face . ` They shall not pass , ' he said , in low , passionate tones which I heard distinctly amid all the turmoil of the storm . Then I awakened . Rilla , I 'm frightened -- the spring will not bring the Big Push we 've all been hoping for -- instead it is going to bring some dreadful blow to France . I am sure of it . The Germans will try to smash through somewhere . '' `` But he told you that they would not pass , '' said Rilla , seriously . She never laughed at Gertrude 's dreams as the doctor did . `` I do not know if that was prophecy or desperation , Rilla , the horror of that dream holds me yet in an icy grip . We shall need all our courage before long . ''
Dr. Blythe did laugh at the breakfast table -- but he never laughed XXXXX 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 .
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