you to come here in the evening sometimes, and it would be
better for her to ask you to do so than for me. These French people have
such funny ideas."

"It would certainly be more pleasant," he agreed, "and evening will be
the time that I have most leisure--that is to say, when we do not happen
to be on duty, as to which I am very vague at present. They say the
sailors will garrison the forts and the army take the outpost duty; but
I fancy, when the Germans really surround us, it will be necessary to
keep so strong a force outside the walls, that they will have to call
out some of us in addition. The arrangement at present is, we are to
drill in the morning and we shall paint in the afternoon; so the evening
will be the only time when we shall be free."

"What do you do in the evening generally? You must find it very lonely."

"Not at all. I have an American who is in our school, and who lodges in
the same house as I do. Then there are the students, a light-hearted,
merry set of young fellows. We have little supper-parties and go to each
other's rooms to chatter and smoke. Then, occasionally, I drop into the
theatre. It is very much like the life I had in London, only a good deal
more lively and amusing, and with a great deal less luxury and a very
much smaller expenditure; and--this is very serious I can assure
you--very much worse tobacco."

The girl laughed merrily.

"What will you do about smoking when you are reduced to the extremity
you prophesy?"

"That point is, I confess, troubling me seriously. I look forward with
very much greater dread to the prospect of having to smoke dried leaves
and the sweepings of tobacco warehouses, than I do to the eating of
rats. I have been making inquiries of all sorts as to the state of the
stock of tobacco, and I intend this evening to invest five pounds in
laying in a store; and mean to take up a plank and hide it under the
floor, and to maintain the most profound secrecy as to its existence.
There is no saying whether, as time goes on, it may not be declared an
offence of the gravest character for any one to have a private store of
any necessary. If you have any special weaknesses, such as chocolate or
tea, or anything of that sort, I should advise you not to lose a moment
in laying in a good stock. You will see in another week, when people
begin to recognize generally what a siege means, that everything
eatable will double in price, and in a month only millionaires will