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They were glad even that a Taube should come now and then, so that they, the women of Paris, might run some risks in this war and share its perils with their men, who every day in the trenches la-bas, faced death for the sake of France. "Our chance of death is a million to one," said some of them. "We should be poor things to take fright at that!"
Everybody in Paris seemed to read newspapers all day long, the cabmen as they drove, the passers-by as they walked hastily on their errands, the waiters in the cafes, and yet they told so little of what was going on la-bas!.... The silence in the restaurant seemed peculiarly dead. A gathering of Parisians no matter where, as I remembered, was rarely silent, a French cafe never.
"They have made one more discovery, la-bas," he observed, jerking his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of Styles. "Mr. Wells told me as we were going upstairs." "What was it?" "Locked up in the desk in the boudoir, they found a will of Mrs. Inglethorp's, dated before her marriage, leaving her fortune to Alfred Inglethorp. It must have been made just at the time they were engaged.
A few boats bumped lazily at some steps where the water lapped. It was blowing hard out in the bay, but this corner was protected by a half-ruined house built on a projecting rock. The priest looked round. "He! la-bas!" he called out, in a guarded voice. But he received no answer. "Wait here," he said to the two women. "I will fetch him from the cafe." And he disappeared.
Margherite, at his first command, had let go the jam-pail and sought shelter in the building. Simultaneously with her flight we all began pulling on the rope for dear life, making the bucket bound against the wall. Upon hearing the dreadful exclamation "La-bas!" the planton almost fell down.
He pulled up at Dominique's door, and, letting his little barb prance and rear at will, looked towards us, showing his white teeth and waving a letter in one hand. I left my breakfast and ran down to him. We exchanged "salamaleks," and then he put the letter in my hand, adding, in broken French, "Le Général, envoyer cela, va faire le guerre, la-bas."
"`The watchman waketh but in vain. Yes, Lucette, I know, in every sense. But how do you know that Mr Hebblethwaite is a good man?" "Ah! I know, I. And I know what makes him stay in London, all same. Now Mademoiselle is ready, and Caesar is at the door, la-bas."
The city had been saved. The Germans were in full retreat. The great shadow of fear had been lifted and the joy of a great hope thrilled through the soul of Paris, in spite of all that death la-bas, where so many young men were making sacrifices of their lives for France.
"Ah, they won't last," cried the young girl. "I wish I could give you something that would last!" "You've given us a good memory of yourself, my daughter. That will last!" "I wish nuns could wear pretty things. I would give you my blue beads," the child went on. "And do you go back to Rome to-night?" her father enquired. "Yes, we take the train again. We've so much to do la-bas."
Such amazement as dominated his puny features I have rarely seen equalled. "Qu'est-ce que vous avez foutu avec cette machine-la?" At which cry the planton staggered, rotated, brought his gun clumsily off his shoulder, and stared, trembling all over with emotion, at his superior. "La-bas!" screamed the pimply sergeant de plantons, pointing fiercely in our direction.
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