sir soldier, you could have called the thing
by its name; we are used to everything." I should think she was used to
everything, unfortunate woman, for the soldiers constrained themselves
but little in delivering themselves of their indiscreet amenities before
her. Yet never did I see her blush. She passed among them mute, her eyes
lowered, seeming not to hear the coarse jokes retailed around her.

Heavens! how she spoiled me! I see her now in the morning, as the sun
breaks on the stone floor the shadows of the window bars, approaching
slowly from the far end of the corridor, the great wings of her bonnet
flapping At her face-She comes close to my bed with a dish that smokes,
and on the edge of which glistens her well-trimmed finger nail. "The
soup is a little thin to-day," she says with her pretty smile, "so I
bring you some chocolate. Eat it quick while it's hot!"

In spite of the care she lavished upon me, I was bored to death in that
hospital. My friend and I, we had reached that degree of brutishness
that throws you on your bed, trying to kill in animal drowsiness the
long hours of insupportable days. The only distractions offered
us consisted in a breakfast and a dinner composed of boiled beef,
watermelon, prunes, and a finger of wine--the whole of not sufficient
quantity to nourish a man.

Thanks to my ordinary politeness toward the sisters and to the
prescription labels that I wrote for them, I obtained fortunately a
cutlet now and then and a pear picked in the hospital orchard. I was,
then, on the whole, the least to be pitied of all the soldiers packed
together, pell-mell, in the wards, but during the first days I could not
succeed even in swallowing the meagre morning dole. It was inspection
hour, and the doctor chose that moment to perform his operations. The
second day after my arrival he ripped a thigh open from top to bottom;
I heard a piercing cry; I closed my eyes, not enough, however, to avoid
seeing a red stream spurt in great jets on to the doctor's apron.
That morning I could eat no more. Little by little, however, I grew
accustomed to it; soon I contented myself by merely turning my head away
and keeping my soup.

In the mean while the situation became intolerable. We tried, but in
vain, to procure newspapers and books; we were reduced to masquerading,
to donning the hussar's vest for fun. This puerile fooling quickly wore
itself out, and stretching ourselves every twenty minutes, exchanging a