g, doctor?" interrupted the general. "I
seem to be hearing very strange doctrines."

"We're talking about French morals, sir."

"Is it true, Messiou," inquired Colonel Parker, "that it is the
custom in France for a man to take his wife and his mistress to the
theatre together to the same box?"

"You needn't try to convince Aurelle of your virtue, colonel," said
the doctor; "he's been living with you for four years, and he knows
you."

* * * * *

Meanwhile Dundas continued to go down into Abbeville every day and
meet his friend. The shelling had got very bad, and the inhabitants
began to leave the town. Germaine, however, remained calm. One day a
shell hit the shop next door to hers, and shattered the whole of
the whitewashed front of the house, and the plaster crumbling away
revealed a fine wooden building which for the last two centuries
had been concealing its splendid carved beams beneath a wretched
coat of whitewash. So also did Germaine, divested by danger of her
superficial vulgarity, suddenly show her mettle and prove herself
the daughter of a race of soldiers.

Accordingly Dundas had conceived a warm and respectful friendship for
her. But he went no further until one day when the alarm caught them
together just as he was bidding her good-bye; then only did the
darkness and the pleasant excitement of danger cause him to forget
ceremony and convention for a few minutes.

Next day Germaine presented the Infant with a fat yellow book; it was
Madame de Staels _Corinne_. The rosy-cheeked one looked askance at
the small closely printed pages.

"Aurelle," he implored, "be a good chap and tell me what it's all
about--I'm not going to read the damned thing!"

"It's the story of a young Scotch laird," replied Aurelle, "who wants
to marry a foreign girl against his family's wish."

"My God!" exclaimed Dundas. "Do you think she expects me to marry
her? My cousin Lord Bamford married a dancer and he's very happy;
he's the gentleman and she has the brains. But in this case it's the
mother--she's a terrible creature!"

"The Zulus," put in the doctor, who was listening, "have a religious
custom which forbids the bridegroom-elect to see his mother-in-law.
Should he happen but to see her footprints in the sand, he must turn
and flee. Nothing could be wiser; for love implies an absurd and
boundless admiration for the loved one, and her mother, appearing to
the lover in the very image of his beloved without the