"And desert me when I need you! What kind of a mother do you think I am to permit such an arrangement as this?"
"The Count will see you safely on the train to Paris and I can finish packing all your things and put them in the garret under lock and key, and you will return to find nothing disturbed."
Madame Ribot"s glance followed Helen"s around the litter of clothing on the floor.
"Really, one of us ought to stay and look after the things!" Helen urged. "Please!"
"Very well. Do, my dear!" her mother agreed.
She breathed a sigh of relief, and Helen drew a deep breath which filled the depths of her eyes with the triumph of freedom from the memory of the scene under the tree and of more things than her mind could catalogue. Even Madame Ribot was susceptible to the glory of those eyes. It occurred to her that Helen did have moments when she was not plain.
"Thank you, mother!" she said. "I--I----" and she caught her mother"s hands in hers and kissed her on the forehead. "And not a word to anybody!"
The desire for movement which always came to her when she was happy called for the open. She did not know where she should go, but somewhere out into the night under the stars, in sight of the gun-flashes. Below, she found Phil and Jacqueline gathering bric-a-brac and china and wrapping it in papers and putting it in a chest.
"You"re through packing?" Phil asked.
"Quite ready," said Helen. He was the one person she did not want to meet.
"Then sleep for you! No telling whether you"ll get any to-morrow."
"I could not--not to-night!" The joy of her decision still remained in her eyes and her exclamation sounded a vitality that seemed to live on itself.
"In that case, Jacqueline and I will welcome an a.s.sistant," said he.
She could hardly go moon-gazing when there was something to do, so she joined in their task. They rolled up rugs; they took down Henriette"s pictures and put all in a closet, which was locked when it was full to overflowing. It was strange doing this when she would be there to-morrow, and stranger still working with him in view of what had happened. At length it became oppressive, even torturing in its fellowship of talk and laughter. For she found herself laughing a number of times when their glances met as he pa.s.sed her something and she relied on his masculine strength and he on her deftness of fingers in their work.
"Enough! There"s little left that the Germans can harm. I really believe I could sleep now!" she exclaimed.
"We can lie down for a couple of hours, anyway," he said.
They went upstairs together and parted at the landing.
"Good-night--or is it good-morning?" he said.
"Good-morning!" she answered. For an instant of silence both seemed arrested as they looked at each other; then Helen turned abruptly toward her room.
CHAPTER XVI
A CHANGE OF PLANS
Count de la Grange was in the yard with his trap and a peasant"s cart for the baggage soon after dawn. He was fretting a little lest his pa.s.sengers should be late, but relieved to find that the General was absent.
"There will be a crush. All the village knows. Everybody is trying to get away," he said.
Jacqueline had coffee ready and insisted that they must take it before they started. Madame Ribot wore a veil and had too much powder on her face; but nothing was lacking in hers or the Count"s manners. Not until he had helped her into the trap, and they were well started on the way, did it occur to any one to ask where Helen was.
"She is walking to the station," said Madame Ribot, with ready ease, "as she wanted to see some one in the village."
"It is the last train," said the Count, "but I told the station master not to say so to the public or the station might be mobbed. I have the tickets. Though I"ve been up all night I feel quite fresh."
"I knew that I could depend upon you, even if the General did not come," Madame Ribot a.s.sured him.
"I wonder where the General is?" remarked the Count, confidentially flicking the venerable horse with the whip and holding the reins in the manner of one driving a four-in-hand.
"He had other business, I was told," said Madame Ribot casually.
At that moment, indeed, the General was concerned with whether it was better to put a basket of carrier pigeons under his bed or in a closet off the kitchen, and this old soldier of France was little concerned with any rivalry with the Count or with Madame Ribot"s affairs. He had forgotten their existence.
It was well that the Count had the tickets or he could hardly have got past the crowd of old men and women and children and their belongings in every kind of portmanteau or knotted in handkerchiefs, towels and sheets, and well that he had influence with the station master which took the party onto the platform before the others. Places were found in the train for Madame Ribot and Henriette to sit down, while the Count and Phil stood, with bundles and children around their legs.
"But Helen has not come!" exclaimed Phil.
"Nor will she!" said Madame Ribot, weary and irritated. She had not risen before nine for many years and loathed travelling even in a first-cla.s.s compartment alone, to say nothing of the present disgustingly crowded conditions. "Her walking to the station was a ruse. She is going to remain at Mervaux to look after our things."
"Alone, with the Germans coming?" Phil demanded. He also showed signs of irritation to match hers.
"She begged to," Madame Ribot explained. "Some one ought to stay, and she said it would give her subjects for her drawings."
"A fine courage, but----"
Already the station master was ringing his bell. Phil dragged his bag from under the seat and sprang out onto the platform.
"I"ll bring her by the next train!" he called.
"There will be no next train!" put in the Count.
"At any rate, she must not be left alone to receive the German army!"
"Perhaps she doesn"t want you!" put in Henriette, rising and leaning out of the window in protest. "I wouldn"t. It"s Helen"s own idea and I know Helen. Come to Paris with us!"
"No, I"m going to Mervaux to see the Germans!" Phil replied promptly.
Henriette gave her mother a swift glance, then one at Phil.
"If Helen, why not I?" she exclaimed.
"But----" gasped Madame Ribot. She half rose, put out her hand to arrest Henriette who had taken up her own bag, but was jerked back to her seat by the motion of the starting train.
"To Mervaux, now we"ve seen you safe on your way!" said Henriette.
"It"s what I wanted to do all the time."
She pa.s.sed her bag to Phil and held out her hand to him as he ran beside the train. He caught her literally in his arms as she whirled around when she alighted, and she was smiling up into his eyes with adventure"s call in her own after she was firm on her feet, her face close to his.
"Thank you, cousin! Well done!" she murmured.