Page:Ruth of the U.S.A. (IA ruthofusa00balm).pdf/310

 details of events before the Reims-Soissons line of the allies; other sectors, in comparison, were disregarded; before Reims and Soissons the enemy were maturing their great attack!

Ruth, having read, gathered together the pages and sat in the sun gazing away over the Rhine to the west. The feeling of fate—the touch of destiny—which had exalted and transformed her upon that cold January morning in Chicago quickened her again. Something beyond herself originally had sent her into this tremendous adventure, throughout which she had followed instinct—chance—fate—whatever you called it—rather than any conscious scheme. At the outset she had responded simply to impulse to serve; to get into Germany—how, she did not know; to do there—what, she had not known. At different times she had formed plans, of course, many plans; but as she thought back upon them now they seemed to her to have contemplated only details, as though she had recognized her incapacity, by conscious plan, to attain this consummation.

For she realized that this was consummation. This which she already had gained, and gained through acts and chances which she could not have foreseen, was all—indeed, more than all—she could have hoped to obtain through the vague, delayed ordeals which her fancy had formed for her. She had nothing more to attempt here in the enemy's land than escape and return to the allied lines; she had no right, indeed, to attempt more; for anything additional which she could gain would be of such slight value, in comparison with what she now had, that it could not justify her in heaping hazard upon the