uld
keep them apart.

She stood now, looking at the empty doorway. What was the rest of her
life to be?

Barlasch returned in the afternoon. He was leisurely and inclined to
contemplativeness. It would seem that his preparations having all been
completed, he was left with nothing to do. War is a purifier; it clears
the social atmosphere and puts womanly men and manly women into their
right places. It is also a simplifier; it teaches us to know how little
we really require in daily life, and how many of the environments with
which men and women hamper themselves are superfluous and the fruit of
idleness.

"I have nothing to do," said Barlasch, "I will cook a careful dinner.
All that I have saved in money I cannot carry away; all that was stored
beneath the floor must be left there. It is often so in war."

He had told Desiree that they would have to walk twelve miles across
the snow-clad marshes bordering the frozen Vistula, between midnight and
dawn. It needed no telling that they could carry little with them.

"You will have to make a new beginning in life," he said curtly, "with
the clothes upon your back. How many times have I done it--the Saints
alone know! But take money, if you have it in gold or silver. Mine is
all in copper groschen, and it is too heavy to carry. I have never yet
been anywhere that money was not useful--and name of a dog! I have never
had it."

So Desiree divided what money she possessed with Barlasch, who added it
carefully up and repeated several times for accuracy the tale of what he
had received. For, like many who do not hesitate to steal, he was very
particular in money matters.

"As for me," he said, "I shall make a new beginning, too. The Captain
will enable me to get back to France, when I shall go to the Emperor
again. It is no place for one of the Old Guard, here with Rapp. I
am getting old, but he will find something for me to do, that little
Emperor."

At midnight they set out, quitting the house in the Frauengasse
noiselessly. The street was quiet enough, for half the houses were empty
now. Their footsteps were inaudible on the trodden snow. It was a dark
night and not cold; for the great frosts of this terrible winter were
nearly over.

Barlasch carried his musket and bayonet. He had instructed Desiree to
walk in front of him, should they meet a patrol. But Rapp had no men to
spare for patrolling the town. There was no spirit left in Dantzig; for
typhus and starvation