They must be
very stupid in Paris.

All day my happy thoughts have been with you, my Djack. It all
seems a blessed dream that we love each other. And I--oh, how
could I have been so ignorant, so silly, not to know it sooner
than I did!

I don't know; I thought it was friendship. And that was so
wonderful to me that I never dreamed any other miracle possible!

_Allons_, my Djack. Come and instruct me quickly, because my
desire for further knowledge is very ardent.

The news? _Cher ami_, there is little. Always the far thunder
beyond Nivelle in ruins; sometimes a battle-plane high in the
blue; a convoy of your beloved mules arriving from the coast;
nothing more exciting.

Monsieur Smeet and Monsieur Glenn inquire always concerning you.
They are brave and kind; their odd jests amuse me.

My father caught a tench in the Lesse this morning.

My gardener, Karl, collected many unpleasant creatures while
hoeing our potatoes. Poor lad, he seems unhealthy. I am glad I
could offer him employment.

My Djack, there could not possibly be any mistake about him, could
there? His papers are en regle. He is what he pretends, a Belgian
student from Ypres in distress and ill health, is he not?

But how can you answer me, you who lie there all alone in a
hospital at Nice? Also, I am ashamed of myself for doubting the
unfortunate young man. I am too happy to doubt anybody, perhaps.

And so good night, my Djack. Sleep sweetly, guarded by powerful
angels.

Thy devoted,
MARYETTE.

She had been writing in the deserted cafe. Now she took a candle and went
slowly upstairs. On the white plaster wall of her bedroom was a Death's
Head moth.

The girl, startled for an instant, stood still; an unfeigned shiver of
displeasure passed over her. Not that the Death's Head was an unfamiliar
or terrifying sight to her; in late summer she usually saw one or two
which had flown through some lighted window.

But it was the amorous history of this creature which the student Karl had
related that now repelled her. This night creature with the skull on its
neck, once scarcely noticed, had now become a trifle repulsive.

She went nearer, lifting the lighted candle. The thing crouched there with
slanted wings. It was newly hatched, its sleek body still wet with the
humors of incubation--wet as a soak