I heard him say.

We sat there side by side for ten minutes or more without speaking.
Finally I said: "Look here, Rechamp--she's right and you're wrong. I
shall be sorry I brought you here if you don't see it before it's too
late."

His face was still hidden; but presently he dropped his hands and
answered me. "I do see. She's saved everything for me--my, people and
my house, and the ground we're standing on. And I worship it because she
walks on it!"

"And so do your people: the war's done that for you, anyhow," I reminded
him.

VII

The morning after we were off before dawn. Our time allowance was up,
and it was thought advisable, on account of our wounded, to slip across
the exposed bit of road in the dark.

Mlle. Malo was downstairs when we started, pale in her white dress, but
calm and active. We had borrowed a farmer's cart in which our two men
could be laid on a mattress, and she had stocked our trap with food and
remedies. Nothing seemed to have been forgotten. While I was settling
the men I suppose Rechamp turned back into the hall to bid her good-bye;
anyhow, when she followed him out a moment later he looked quieter
and less strained. He had taken leave of his parents and his sister
upstairs, and Yvonne Malo stood alone in the dark driveway, watching us
as we drove away.

There was not much talk between us during our slow drive back to the
lines. We had to go it a snail's pace, for the roads were rough; and
there was time for meditation. I knew well enough what my companion was
thinking about and my own thoughts ran on the same lines. Though the
story of the German occupation of Rechamp had been retold to us a dozen
times the main facts did not vary. There were little discrepancies of
detail, and gaps in the narrative here and there; but all the household,
from the astute ancestress to the last bewildered pantry-boy, were
at one in saying that Mlle. Malo's coolness and courage had saved the
chateau and the village. The officer in command had arrived full of
threats and insolence: Mlle. Malo had placated and disarmed him, turned
his suspicions to ridicule, entertained him and his comrades at dinner,
and contrived during that time--or rather while they were making music
afterward (which they did for half the night, it seemed)--that Monsieur
de Rechamp and Alain should slip out of the cellar in which they had
been hidden, gain the end of the gardens through an old hidden passage,
and get off in t