very
parcel of which is responsible for all the rest, but also the beloved
home of infancy, the home of parents, and, for this collegian of
yesterday, the scene of charming walks and delightful vacations. He has
but just now left the paternal mansion; and, not yet accustomed to the
separation, he visits it by the roads of the air, the only ones which he
is now free to travel. He does not take advantage of his proximity to
Compiegne to go ring the familiar door-bell, because he is a soldier and
respects orders; but, on returning from his rounds, he does not hesitate
to turn aside a bit in order to pass over his home, indulging up there
in the sky in all sorts of acrobatic caprioles to attract attention and
prolong the interview. What lover was ever more ingenious and madder in
his rendezvous?

Throughout all his correspondence he recalls his air visits. "You must
have seen my head, for I never took my eyes off the house...." Or, after
an aerial somersault that filled all those down below with terror: "I am
wretched to know that my veering the other day frightened _maman_ so
much, but I did it so as to see the house without having to lean over
the side of the machine, which is unpleasant on account of the wind...."
Or sometimes he threw down a paper which was picked up in Count Foy's
park: "Everything is all right." He thought he was reassuring his
parents about his safety; but their state of mind can be conceived when
they beheld, exactly over their heads, an airplane engaged apparently in
performing a dance, while through their binoculars they could see the
tiny black speck of a head which looked over its side. He had indeed a
singular fashion of reassuring them!

Meanwhile, at Vauciennes the newcomer was being tested. At first he was
thought to look rather sickly and weak, to be somewhat reserved and
distant, and too well dressed, with a "young-ladyish" air. He was known
to be already an expert pilot, capable of making tail spins after barely
three months' experience. But still the men felt some uncertainty about
this youngster whom they dared not trifle with on account of his eyes,
"out of which fire and spirit flowed like a torrent."[15] Later on they
were to know him better.

[Footnote 15: Saint-Simon.]

A legend was current as to the large quantity of "wood broken" by
Guynemer in his early days with the escadrille. This is radically
untrue, and his notebook contradicts it. From the very first day the
_debutant