"Oh, madam," he said to my mother-in-law, "shall I dare ask you...."
"Dare ask it, sir."
"To lend us your kitchen and your dining-room? We are ten surgeon-majors, and we have nowhere to dine."
"Certainly, my house is at your disposal."
"But say nothing about it! It is not here that our quarters are."
His companion, a giddy-brained youth fresh from the schools, who hitherto had not opened his mouth, cried out:
"We will say that the ladies are relations of ours. Mademoiselle will not refuse to declare I am her cousin."
The haughty Antoinette did not like the joke, and snubbed the joker.
Then Esculapius" disciples went away, to return speedily. We exchanged a great many low bows, and, the ceremony performed, left the gentlemen for fear we should disturb them. They seemed to want rest, judging from their worn-out faces. We heard that one of our guests who had just fallen into a doze was the famous Professor X, and we beheld his tired face with some respect. In a clandestine meeting we had decided:
"We shall have supper in the garden."
"We will drink a cup of milk, and eat bread and b.u.t.ter."
We are not of those who believe in the necessity of dining. Of course, out of respect for our stomachs, we give them tolerable cheer, but occasionally we are content with a cup of cocoa and a slice of bread.
And that night we had other fish to fry than to feed ourselves. Besides, we were unlucky enough to have no maids at all at that time; the only one we had left had refused to stay any longer in a place likely to be invaded.
Our modest meal over, we ran into the house. In the kitchen, the dinner was getting on well. A savoury smell rose from the saucepans. A giant scullion was helping a cook, who pontified solemnly. This strange cook hid beneath his ap.r.o.n, a.s.sumed for the occasion, a uniform covered all over with decorations. Beneath the trade of cook, also a.s.sumed for the occasion, he hid that of an engineer in civil life, in military life that of an hospital orderly. He was tall, spare, pale, red-haired, and he looked unalterably calm.
"Where are the Germans?" we asked the engineer-cook. "Will they come here? What ought we to do?"
He feared the Prussians would reach Morny, and in his opinion we had better avoid the meeting.
"Are we to run away, then, and wander about like the Belgians? Or shall we take a ticket to Ma.r.s.eilles, Algiers, or Timbuktu? Is that far enough?"
Our interlocutor stilled our impatience with the slow sounds of his voice. Really now, he had a castle ... in the air?... No, but in Brittany, where his sister would be delighted to receive us.... And the head cook, while draining dry his fried potatoes, gave us the address of his mansion in Brittany. After the advice of the kitchen, we wanted the counsels of the dining-room. A few sleepy-heads had already gone to bed, among others the celebrated physician and the giddy-brained youth, who had grown extremely serious. The remainder of the learned party were chatting together amid the smoke of tobacco and the flowers on the table. Without more ado we went in, and asked the usual questions:
"Where are the Germans? Will they come here? What ought we to do?"
A long conversation ensued. Alas, our guests were as pessimistic as could be. The head major, a small man, thick-set, energetic, and dark, did not hide from us the truth that we should see the Germans, and, still worse, that they would lay siege to Paris. Grief and indignation prevented us from looking at our own situation; we thought but of the country itself.
"Why," Genevieve cried out, "you think the Germans will conquer us! You are expecting another "70?"
"Never! never! The Germans will be beaten. Should they go to Ma.r.s.eilles and Bordeaux, I should still believe in their final defeat, but the moment is a critical one. We have been beaten; it is a certain fact; there is no use being blind to it, and the Germans will go to Paris."
A clear voice rose at the end of the table:
"You talk as if we were lost," Colette said. "We are retreating? It may be a wise measure. Our men are ready for anything. The Germans in Paris!--but you do not know our soldiers!"
"Very good," said the neighbour of Colette, a tall, fair-haired man. "Do try to convince my friends; these ten days I have dinned the same arguments into their ears. But you must excuse our despondency; weariness is the cause of it; these last three weeks we have hardly slept. And what do we see of war? Nothing that is not horrible and disheartening--battle-fields after the fight, the dead, the wounded, the stragglers--nothing that elevates, and idealises men."
So the talk went on, and the dining-room rang with the praises the doctors bestowed on their heroic patients. They spoke chiefly of the terrible weariness of the men.
"They are overcome with sleep," they said, "and to such an extent that they don"t wake up, even when we dress their wounds."
A few minutes after, Colette said to her neighbour:
"It is delightful to discuss with you. At least, you always agree with me!"
We all burst out laughing, and at this fit of gaiety the majors went softly out for fear they would wake up the officers and the refugees whom we were sheltering.
CHAPTER III
Sleep was long in coming that night. After much talking we were still at a loss what to think. Were the Germans really at our gates? "I cannot believe it," groaned Genevieve; "it is a collapse; it is the end of all things."
"If we are invaded, what shall we do?"
The next day we renewed the discussion.
"If the Prussians come, we have but to wait for them with a bold face,"
said Genevieve and Colette. Mme. Valaine hesitated.
"Mother," exclaimed Yvonne and Antoinette, "we cannot stay here. Think of the risks we run."
"What shame," retorted Colette, "to run away like a troop of rabbits! I had never thought you were such cowards!"
The others repeated with one accord:
"And if mother was taken as a hostage? The Germans are capable of anything; they have already committed many atrocities."
Our perplexity was great.
About ten o"clock there dropped from the sky three new surgeons, and, pressing on them a cup of coffee, we renewed our anxious questions. They told us plainly that the Germans were gaining ground, and that we were sure to see them.
"What do you advise us to do?" cried my mother-in-law.
"Madam," Dr. Seseman declared--he was bearded, jovial, and fatherly--"Madam, if you were relations of mine, I should urge your departure."
"Well, the die is cast, we shall go," declared Mme. Valaine.
"Yes," I said, "but the house is not in order."
A few days ago, as I went to Mme. Lantois to buy some eggs, the farmer"s wife told me with great satisfaction:
"I feel quieter now, my house is in order."
It was as much as to say that all she set store by had disappeared; the family had hidden, buried, and walled up whatever they had been able to hide, bury, and wall up.
Our guests of yesterday"s dinner had told us that the owners of a northern farm had unpaved a yard, dug a huge hole, huddled in pieces of furniture and pictures, and then filled up and repaved it. This farm could await the invaders: it was in order. But our house was not in order--that was obvious enough.