There was no roof; a side wall
and an entire corner were gone. It was the residence of the ladies of
the decoration.

Inside there was for a moment an illusion of entirety. The narrow
corridor that ran through the centre of the house was weatherproof.
But through some unseen gap rushed the wind of the night. At the
right, warm with lamplight, was the reception room, dining room and
bedroom--one small chamber about twelve by fifteen!

What a strange room it was, furnished with odds and ends from the
shattered houses about! A bed in the corner; a mattress on the floor;
a piano in front of the shell-holed windows, a piano so badly cracked
by shrapnel that panels of the woodwork were missing and keys gone;
two or three odd chairs and what had once been a bookcase, and in the
centre a pine table laid for a meal.

Mrs. K----, whose uncle was a cabinet minister, was hurrying in with a
frying-pan in her hand.

"The mutton!" she said triumphantly, and placed it on the table,
frying-pan and all. The other lady of the decoration followed with the
potatoes, also in the pan in which they had been cooked.

We drew up our chairs, for the mutton must not be allowed to get cold.

"It's quite a party, isn't it?" said one of the hostesses, and showed
us proudly the dish of fruit on the centre of the table, flanked by
bonbons and nuts which had just been sent from England.

True, the fruit was a little old and the nuts were few; but they gave
the table a most festive look.

Some one had taken off my shoes and they were drying by the fire,
stuffed with paper to keep them in shape. My soaking outer garments
had been carried to the lean-to kitchen to hang by the stove, and dry
under the care of a soldier servant who helped with the cooking. I
looked at him curiously. His predecessor had been killed in the room
where he stood.

The German batteries were firing, and every now and then from the
trenches at the foot of the street came the sharp ping of rifles. No
one paid any attention. We were warm and sheltered from the wind. What
if the town was being shelled and the Germans were only six hundred
feet away? We were getting dry, and there was mutton for dinner.

It was a very cheerful party--the two young ladies, and a third who
had joined them temporarily, a doctor who was taking influenza and
added little to the conversation, the chauffeur attached to the house,
who was a count in ordinary times, a Belgian major who had come up