way flowers that they
might have sold.

The English soldier was popular in Paris. Before the city had been
put out of bounds for the British Army it had been a favorite resort
of men and officers, who had made a great reputation with the
Parisians for being courteous, kind and liberal. The Belgians on the
other hand were quite unpopular, being openly called "dirty Belgians"
and, judging from my own personal observation, there was a certain
amount of reason for this disrespect.

Towards nine o'clock, when the lights were lowered, the genuine
Parisian who had been dining in the cafes began to go home, as did the
successful women and their consorts, causing the crowds to become
perceptibly thinner. Those women who had not been successful,
redoubled their efforts, and it was really pathetic to see the
attempts of some of these poor outcasts who were little more than
children, to capture their prey.

At midnight the Place de L'Opera was absolutely deserted. On two
occasions I watched this strange fascinating panorama of human life
and emotion, forgetful of the time, and found myself quite alone there
as the clock struck the midnight hour. Alone I watched the moonlight
streaming down upon the Grand Opera house transforming it into the
purest marble.

I wondered whether it was all a dream. Could it be really true that I
was there in Paris in the middle of the great war? Was it possible
that the greatest battle of all time was taking place at the very
moment not sixty miles away? Yet it was a real "Bon soir" that a
passing gendarme gave me as I strolled homeward past the great bronze
shaft erected by Napoleon in the Place Vendome and now towering black
in the white moonlight, while the river Seine shimmered like molten
silver in its way to the sea. It was really true but it was one of
those times when a soldier in Europe finds it very difficult to
accommodate himself to the violent contrasts which he is constantly
meeting, when transferred suddenly from the war zone back into the
peaceful life of the civilian.

The quiet and dignified Hotel Lotti on the Place Vendome was described
in the guide books as frequented by the French nobility and the
aristocracy; the claim proved to be correct for when I was there two
French countesses, an English knight and a Duke had apartments there.
The Hotel Lotti is next door to the Hotel Continental and is owned by
the former manager of that Hotel. Both the Hotel Continental and the
Me