t ought to be watching
Cuthbert's bedside. She might not be good, but she was a woman and she
loved, and it must be terrible for her to know how ill he was and never
to be allowed even to see him for a moment. It was evident that she had
been taken ill, and when on Rene's leaving she went to her patient she
expected to find him downcast and anxious. Sad he certainly was, but he
did not seem to her restless or excited as she had expected.

"I have been hearing of the others," he said. "Six of them are gone, all
merry lads, taking life easily, as students do, but with plenty of good
in them, that would have come to the surface later on. It will make a
sad gap in our ranks when the rest of us come together again. The
wounded are all going on well, I hear, that of course is a great
comfort. I hear the other two companies suffered much more than we did.
The walls we fought behind saved us a good deal you see. Rene says the
troops all went out again three days ago, and that there was a talk of
a great fight, but there has only been some skirmishing and they have
begun to come back into the town again. Our corps did not go out. They
think they have done a fair share of the work, and I think so too. Rene
says the old major, who is now in command, is so furious at the
cowardice shown last time by the National Guards and some of the troops
that he declares he will not take out his brave lads to throw away their
lives when the Parisians will not venture within musket-shot of the
enemy.

"I think he is quite right. I hope there will be no more sorties, for I
am sure it would be useless. If you had seen, as I did, seven or eight
thousand men running like a flock of frightened sheep, you would agree
with me that it would be hopeless to think of breaking through the
Germans with such troops as this. One victory would make all the
difference in the world to their morale, but they will never win that
one victory, and it will take years before the French soldier regains
his old confidence in himself. Have you taken to rats yet, Mary?" he
asked, with a flash of his old manner.

"No, sir, and do not mean to. We are still going on very fairly. The
meat rations are very small, but we boil them down into broth, and as we
have plenty of bread to sop into it we do very well; our store of eggs
have held on until now. We have been having them beaten up in our
morning coffee instead of milk, but they are just gone, and Madame
Michaud says that