, suggested that
"Perhaps, if he had saved your British, he would not have said that it
was nothing."

And the lean, iron-grey Colonel with the ferocious moustache remarked in
an austere, guttural voice, "_Il est impayable--lui!_"

Jimmy had been offering cigarettes to them as if he thought that was the
only thing that would stop them. Then the old white-haired General sat
between Viola and him with his arm round Jimmy's shoulder and began
again, so loudly that everybody in the room could hear him.

"Your husband, Madame, is a man who does not know what fear is--who
does not care what death is. For two nights and three days, Madame,
he has been down there--at Alost and Termonde--under shell-fire.
_Mais--un enfer, Madame!_ You would have thought he had been born under
fire, your husband. _Ce n'est pas un homme, c'est un salamandre_.
Bullets--mitrailleuse--shrapnel--it is no more to him than to go out in a
shower of rain. When our men were scuttling, and shouted to him to get
under shelter, what do you think he said?--'_Ouvrir une parapluie--ca ne
vaut pas la peine_."

There was a shout of laughter.

"That," said Viola, "is the sort of thing he _would_ say. And please, I
want to know what's the matter with his leg."

I can see her now, sitting on that crimson velvet seat in the lounge and
looking past the gesticulations of the General to Jevons, who was shaking
his head at her as much as to say, "Don't you believe the old boy, he's a
shocking story-teller."

The old General seemed aware of her preoccupation, for he rose, murmuring
affectionately, "_Mon petit Chevons_. I will not praise him to you,
Madame. No doubt you know what he is."

I can see her standing up there and giving her hand to the old General
and trying to stiffen her face to say, "I know."

Evidently she thought General Roubaix was too voluble to be entirely
trustworthy, for, when he left us and Jimmy had gone out to see about our
dinner, she addressed herself to the two Colonels.

"Please tell me what my husband _really_ did."

Both the Colonels tried to tell her; but it was the younger one with the
moustache (the one who had said that Jimmy was _"impayable"_) who
satisfied her.

It was true, every bit of it. Jevons, it seemed, had been in the thick of
the bombardment of Alost and in the fighting for the bridge at Termonde.
His practice was to leave Kendal and the motor-car behind him in some
place of shelter while he walked into the fire. S