traffic. "Forget it!" he
said. "Give Old Man Worry a swift kick. Here we are in Gay Paree. The
war's over for twenty-four hours!"

3

To all allied soldiers on leave of absence from the front, Paris
represented what McGee had voiced to Larkin--a place where the war was
over for the time limits of their passes. Forgotten, for a few brief
hours, were all the memories of military tedium, the roar of guns, the
mud of trenches, the flaming airplane plunging earthward out of
control--all these things were banished by the stimulating thought that
here was the world famous city with all its amusements, its arts, its
countless beauties, open to them for a few magic hours.

The fact that Paris was only a ghost of her former self made no
impression on war-weary troopers. What mattered it, to them, that the
priceless art treasures of the Louvre had been removed to the safety of
the southern interior? Was it their concern that the once mighty and
fearless Napoleon now lay blanketed by tons of sand bags placed over his
crypt to protect revered bones from enemy air raids or a chance hit by
the long range gun now shelling the city? What mattered it that famous
cafes and chefs were now reduced to the simplest of menus; what
difference did it make if the streets were darkened at night; who that
had never seen Paris in peace time could sense that she was a stricken
city hiding her sorrow and travail behind a mask of dogged, grim
determination?

Paris was Paris, to the medley of soldiers gathered there from the four
points of the compass, and it was the more to her credit that she could
still offer amusement to uniformed men and boys whose war-weary minds
found here relief from the drive of duty.

Everywhere the streets were swarming with men in uniform--French,
English, Australian, Canadian, New Zealanders, colored French Colonials,
a few Russians who, following the sudden collapse of their government,
were now soldiers lacking a flag, Scotch Highlanders in their gaudy
kilts, Japanese officers in spick uniforms not yet baptized in the mud
of the trenches--a varied, colorful parade of young men bent on one
great common objective.

At night, the common magnet was the theatre, and the _Folies
Bergeres_, featuring a humorous extravaganza, Zig Zag, in which was
starred a famous English comedian, drew its full quota of fun-seeking
youths.

It was this show that McGee and Larkin had come to see, and at the end
of the first act they