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In addition to the messages of inquiry and condolence which went on pouring in, important members of the Government arrived from Paris and the provinces. There also came to Falaise the mother of Commander Dupré, and the father and brother of Lieutenant Paritot. De Wissant made the latter his special care.
If Dupré and little Paritot are the men of honour I take them to be, one or other of them will of course marry her!" "And if the Neptune is not raised " the Mayor's voice also dropped to a whisper "in time what then?" "Then," said the Admiral, "everything will be done by me so you can assure your unlucky friends to conceal the fact that Commander Dupré failed in his duty.
"A most exceptional thing," said the youngest lieutenant, with a sigh. His name was Paritot, and he also had been out with the Neptune that morning. "In fact, it only happens in that week which sees four Thursdays or when we have a lady on board, madame!"
"Then we shall not meet till to-morrow?" Claire repeated mechanically, "No, not till to-morrow, dear Madeleine." "May I row you home, madame?" Lieutenant Paritot asked Madeleine eagerly. "Certainly, mon ami."
The Admiral's weather-beaten face was a shade less red than usual; the bright blue eyes he turned on the younger man were veiled with a film of moisture. "Yes, the news has just come in, but it isn't to be made public for awhile. It's the submarine Neptune which was struck, with Commander Dupré, Lieutenant Paritot, and ten men on board. The craft is lying eighteen fathoms deep "
And then, after a pause, he added, "the conditions in which these life-helmets could be utilized only occur in one accident in a thousand " "Still, they would have saved our comrades in the Lutin," objected Lieutenant Paritot. The Lutin? There was a moment's silence.
"I have to thank you for shall I say a very interesting experience? I am too honest to say an agreeable one!" She shook hands with Commander Dupré and Lieutenant Paritot, the officers who had accompanied her on what had been, now that she looked back on it, perhaps a more perilous adventure than she had realized. "You're coming with me, Claire?"
She was glad she had not remembered the Lutin when she was sitting, eating ices, and exchanging frivolous, chaffing talk with Lieutenant Paritot in that chamber of little ease, the drum-like interior of the Neptune, where not even she, a small woman, could stand upright. "Well, well! We must not keep you from your déjeuner!" she cried, shaking off the queer, disturbing sensation.
Then Jacques de Wissant gave a brief personal account of each of the ten seamen whom this vast concourse had gathered together to honour. It was noted by the curious in such things that he made no allusion to the two officers, to Commander Dupré and Lieutenant Paritot; doubtless he thought that they, after all, had been amply honoured in the preceding speeches.
Tarnier stepped downwards, to emerge a moment later with the first body, obviously that of the gallant Commander Dupré, who was found, as it was expected he would be, in the conning tower. Once more the doctor's burly figure disappeared, once more he emerged, tenderly bearing a slighter, lighter burden, obviously the boyish form of Lieutenant Paritot, who was found close to Commander Dupré.
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