e from?"

"I think," I said after a rather stunned pause, "that I shall not tell
you."

"Madame is very cautious!"

I felt convinced that he spoke with the authority of the army, or of
the town _gendarmerie_, behind him. But I was irritated. Besides, I
had been cautioned so much about telling where I had been, except in
general terms, that I was even afraid to talk in my sleep.

"I think," I said, "that it does not really matter where I came from,
where I am going, or what I am doing here."

I expected to see him throw back his cape and exhibit a sheriff's
badge, or whatever its French equivalent. But he only smiled.

"In that case," he said cheerfully, "I shall wish you a good morning."

"Good-bye," I said coldly. And he took himself off.

I have never solved the mystery of that encounter. Was he merely
curious? Or scraping acquaintance with the only woman he had seen in
months? Or was he as imposing a person as he looked, and did he go
away for a warrant or whatever was necessary, and return to find me
safe in the lap of the British Army?

The canary birds sang, and a porter with a leather apron, having
overcome a national inability to light a fire in the middle of the
day, came to take me to my room. There was an odour of stewing onions
in the air, and soapsuds, and a dog sniffed at me and barked because I
addressed him in English.

And then General Huguet came, friendly and smiling, and speaking
English. And all was well.

Afterward I learned how that same diplomacy which made me comfortable
and at home with him at once has made smooth the relations between the
English and French Armies. It was Chesterfield, wasn't it, who spoke
of _"Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re"?_ That is General Huguet. A
tall man, dark, keen and of most soldierly bearing; beside the genial
downrightness of the British officers he was urbane, suave, but full
of decision. His post requires diplomacy but not concession.

Sir John French, he regretted to say, was at the front and would not
return until late in the evening. But Colonel Fitzgerald hoped that I
would come to luncheon at headquarters, so that we might talk over
what was best to be done. He would, if the arrangement suited me,
return at one o'clock for me.

It was half past twelve. I made such concessions to the occasion as my
travelling bag permitted, and, prompt to the minute, General Huguet's
car drew up at the inn door. It was a wonderful car. I used it all
that a