ital for
Germans, many of whom were sitting about on benches in the stone-flagged
courtyard. The two Officers went in to have a closer look at them. The
majority were so greyish pale, their hair such unlovely stubble, their
temples so shrunken that the Subaltern pitied them in their morose
dejection and slow-witted taciturnity.

"I don't think we'd better go into the church," he said. "They'd
probably throw us out."

They passed through an archway in a huge medieval wall into the
graveyard, and thence, by a sudden and complete transformation in time,
colour and atmosphere, into a most delightful garden of magnificent
proportions, with smooth lawns and sweeping drives. The chateau itself
was scarcely in keeping with this stateliness. The impression it gave
one came as an anti-climax. The Subaltern was beginning to develop a
fine taste in French chateaux, but somehow this one did not rank with
the others, although his brain reeled at the thought of the cost of it
all. Probably that is why it failed as a work of art and beauty: it made
one wonder how much it must have cost.

A passer-by told them that it belonged to a certain woman whose name had
been on everybody's lips, just before the war, and the information
stimulated their interest. They wandered around, past silent fountains
and over velvet lawns, stone terraces and gravel drives. On their way
back they passed one of the big bay windows on the ground floor of the
chateau. It was open, and they caught the faint but distinctive aroma of
disinfectant. The erstwhile billiard-room had obviously been converted
into a hospital dressing-room. The place was deserted, and they turned
away without the intuition entering into either of their heads that they
themselves would before long be carried into that very room.

Souvir was apparently their headquarters for the time being, for if they
moved away by day or night, they always marched back into it. And as,
day by day, they saw the same sights and did the same things, the
passage of time did not leave such exact impressions on his mind as the
changing sights and actions of the moving battles had done.

Compared with the days that had gone before they were divinely
comfortable. Unless there was an alarm, they could sleep as long as they
liked. There was not sufficient accommodation in the little hut, so the
Officers commandeered a little shed at the side of it. Here there was
plenty of straw, and for several mornings they