tant before she died."

VII

It is an artistic fault in real life that it deals so frequently in
coincidence, to the casting of suspicion upon those who report it
veraciously. On the very night that Jeanne-Marie died, probably within
the very hour that she died, Jimmy was shot down, while taking part in a
bombing expedition; the plane he was conducting was seen, by crews of
the two other bombing-planes in the formation, to burst into flames
after a direct hit from an anti-aircraft battery, which had been firing
persistently, though necessarily at haphazard, up toward the bumble-bee
hum of French motors--so betrayingly unlike the irregular guttural growl
of the German machines.

Throughout the following morning I had been attempting, with the
indispensable aid of my old friend, Colonel ----, of the French war
office, to get into telegraphic communication with the commander of
Jimmy's _esquadrille_; but it was noon, or very nearly, before this
unexpected word came to us. And when it came, I found myself unable to
believe it.

In the very spirit of Assessor Brack, "Things don't happen like that!" I
kept insisting. "It's too improbable. I must wait for further
verification. We shall see, colonel, there's been an error in names;
some mistake." I was stubborn about it. Simply, for Susan's sake, I
could not admit the possibility that Jimmy was dead.

During the midday pause I hurriedly made my way to the Widow Guyot's
little shop. The baby had already been taken to the Hospice de la
Maternite--the old Convent of Port Royal, near the cemetery of
Montparnasse. He had stood the trip well, Madame Guyot assured me, and
would undoubtedly win through to a ripe old age. A priest was present. I
told Madame Guyot to arrange with him for a proper funeral and interment
for Jeanne-Marie, and was at once informed that the skilled assistants
of a local director of _pompes funebres_ were even then at work,
embalming her mortal remains.

"So much, at least, m'sieu," said Madame Guyot, "I knew her husband
would desire; and I relied on your suggestion that no expense need be
spared. I have stipulated for a funeral of the first class"--a specific
thing in France; so many carriages with black horses, so many plumes of
such a quality, and so on--"it only remains to acquire a site for the
poor little one's grave. This, too, M'sieu le Capitaine, you may safely
leave to my discretion; but we must together fix on a day and hour for
the ceremo