"Come, it's time we were off," said Clarisse. "We shan't bring her to
life again. Are you coming, Simonne?"

They all looked at the bed out of the corners of their eyes, but they
did not budge an inch. Nevertheless, they began getting ready and gave
their skirts various little pats. Lucy was again leaning out of window.
She was alone now, and a sorrowful feeling began little by little to
overpower her, as though an intense wave of melancholy had mounted up
from the howling mob. Torches still kept passing, shaking out clouds of
sparks, and far away in the distance the various bands stretched into
the shadows, surging unquietly to and fro like flocks being driven
to the slaughterhouse at night. A dizzy feeling emanated from these
confused masses as the human flood rolled them along--a dizzy feeling,
a sense of terror and all the pity of the massacres to come. The people
were going wild; their voices broke; they were drunk with a fever of
excitement which sent them rushing toward the unknown "out there" beyond
the dark wall of the horizon.

"A BERLIN! A BERLIN! A BERLIN!"

Lucy turned round. She leaned her back against the window, and her face
was very pale.

"Good God! What's to become of us?"

The ladies shook their heads. They were serious and very anxious about
the turn events were taking.

"For my part," said Caroline Hequet in her decisive way, "I start for
London the day after tomorrow. Mamma's already over there getting a
house ready for me. I'm certainly not going to let myself be massacred
in Paris."

Her mother, as became a prudent woman, had invested all her daughters'
money in foreign lands. One never knows how a war may end! But Maria
Blond grew vexed at this. She was a patriot and spoke of following the
army.

"There's a coward for you! Yes, if they wanted me I should put on man's
clothes just to have a good shot at those pigs of Prussians! And if we
all die after? What of that? Our wretched skins aren't so valuable!"

Blanche de Sivry was exasperated.

"Please don't speak ill of the Prussians! They are just like other men,
and they're not always running after the women, like your Frenchmen.
They've just expelled the little Prussian who was with me. He was an
awfully rich fellow and so gentle: he couldn't have hurt a soul. It's
disgraceful; I'm ruined by it. And, you know, you mustn't say a word or
I go and find him out in Germany!"

After that, while the two were at loggerheads, Gaga began m