it came and so we
waited too long. We had only a farm wagon and an old horse with which to
make our escape, our other horses and car having been requisitioned for
the army."

This time, when Yvonne hesitated, Mrs. Burton had a cowardly wish that
she would not go on with her story, so easy it was to anticipate what
might follow.

In this moment Yvonne lived over again the night in her life she could
never forget. Instead of the soft lapping of the waves against the sides
of the ship, the young French girl was hearing the booming of guns, the
shrieking of shells and the final patter of bullets like a falling rain.

"I would prefer not to tell you anything more in detail, Mrs. Burton,"
Yvonne afterwards added more calmly than one could have thought
possible.

"The night of our attempted escape we were overtaken by the enemy and my
little brother was killed; a few days later my mother died of the shock
and exposure. I don't know just how things happened. I remember I was
alone one night in a woods with a battle going on all around me. Next
morning I believe the Germans began a retreat. A French soldier found me
and took me with him to the home of some French people. I think I must
have been with them several weeks before I was myself again. Then I
learned that our chateau had been burned and my brother reported killed.

"One day an American friend, who had learned of our family tragedy, came
to see me and decided that it would be wiser to take me home to his own
family in the United States. I was so dazed and miserable he believed I
would be happier there and would sooner learn to forget. Of course after
a time I was happier, but of course one can never forget. So at last I
persuaded my friends I must be allowed to return to my own country, that
I must help my people who were still going through all that I had
endured. My friends were opposed to the idea, but because I insisted, at
last they gave their consent. Then after our boat sailed I felt I could
not go back to France. I was afraid. I remembered the long night in the
woods--the German soldiers----"

Mrs. Burton's arms were about the girl.

"Please don't talk any more of the past, Yvonne. Try to remember, my
dear, that the enemy is no longer in the neighborhood of your old home.
He has been driven further and further back until some day, please God,
the last German soldier shall have disappeared forever from the sacred
soil of France.

"Sleep now, I shall si