ter's Maltese crosses.

The girl looked at it curiously. "What is it?" she said.

"It's the badge of the Sacred Legion," said Julie gravely. "You know
Malta? Well, that's part of the British Empire, of course, and the
English used to have a regiment there to defend it from the Turks. It was
a great honour to join, and so it was called the Sacred Legion. This
officer is a Captain in it."

"Shut up Julie," said Peter, _sotto voce_.

But nothing would stop her. "Come now," she said. "What will you give?
You'll give her one for a kiss, won't you, Solomon?"

The girl laughed and blushed "Not before mademoiselle," she said, looking
at Peter.

"Oh, I'm off," cried Julie, "I'll spare you one, but only one, remember."
and she deliberately got up and left them.

Mademoiselle was "tres jolie," said the girl, collecting her badges.
Peter detached a cross and gave it her, and she demurely put up her
mouth. He kissed her lightly, and walked leisurely out to settle the bill
and call the car. He had entirety forgotten his depression, and the world
seemed good to him. He hummed a little song by the water's edge as he
waited, and thought over the day. He could never remember having had such
a one in his life. Then he recollected that one badge was gone, and he
abstracted the other. Without his badges he would not be known as a
chaplain.

When Julie appeared, she made no remark, as he had half-expected. They
got in, and started off back in the cooling evening. Near Tancarville
they stopped the car to have the hood put up, and strolled up into the
grounds of the old castle while they waited.

"Extraordinary it must have been to have lived in a place like this,"
said Peter.

"Rather," said Julie, "and beyond words awful to the women. I cannot
imagine what they must have been like, but I think they must have been
something like native African women."

"Why?" queried Peter.

"Oh, because a native woman never reads and hardly goes five miles from
her village. She is a human animal, who bears children and keeps the
house of her master, that's all. That's what these women must have done."

"The Church produced some different types," said Peter; "but they had no
chance elsewhere, perhaps. Still, I expect they were as happy as we,
perhaps happier."

"And their cows were happier still, I should think," laughed Julie. "No,
you can't persuade me. I wouldn't have been a woman in those days for the
world."

"And now?" asked Peter.