ot, too, for having unwittingly harbored him. Jeanne-Marie wasn't
shot, though; the kennel liked her cooking. So, like the true daughter
of a French notary, she used her wits, made herself indispensable to the
comfort of the officers, preserved her dignity under incredible insults,
and her virtue under conditions I needn't tell you about, Ambo--and
bided her time.

"It nearly killed her; but she lived through it, and finally the French
returned and helped her patch up and clean up what was left of the
kennel. And a month or so later Jimmy's _esquadrille_ made
Jeanne-Marie's battered little house their headquarters and treated its
mistress like the staunch little heroine she is. Of course, Jimmy wasn't
attached to the _esquadrille_ then; it was more than a year later that
he arrived on the scene; but it didn't take him long after getting there
to decide on an international alliance. Bless him! he says Jeanne-Marie
isn't very pretty, he guesses; she's just--wonderful! She couldn't make
up her mind to the international alliance, though. She loved Jimmy, but
the match didn't strike her as prudent. An orphan must consider these
things. Her property had been swept away, and Jimmy admitted he had
nothing. And being her father's daughter, Jeanne-Marie very wisely
pointed out that he was in hourly peril of being killed or crippled for
life. To marry under such circumstances would be to make her father turn
in his grave. How can anything so sad be so funny, Ambo? Well, anyway,
Jimmy, being Jimmy, saw the point, agreed with her completely, and seems
to have felt thoroughly ashamed of himself for trying to persuade her
into so crazy a match!

"Then little Jeanne-Marie came down with typhoid; her life was
despaired of, a priest was summoned. In the presence of death, she
managed to tell the priest that it would seem less lonely and terrible
to her if she could meet it as the wife 'M'sieu Jee-mee.' So the good
priest managed somehow to slash through yards of official red tape in no
time--you know how hard it is to get married in France, Ambo!--and the
sacrament of marriage preceded the last rites; and then, dear,
Jeanne-Marie faced the Valley of Shadow clinging to M'sieu Jee-mee's
hand. The whole _esquadrille_ was unstrung--naturally; even their famous
ace, Boisrobert. Jimmy says he absolutely refused to fly for three
days." Tears were pouring from Susan's eyes.

"Oh, what a fool I am!" she protested, mopping at them with a corner