yielding their
wicked will to an old woman. Yet they _did_ yield, thank God! And then I
got the captain's promise to spare the hospice--got it by saying we
would care for his wounded as faithfully as we tended our own. I said,
'If you leave this house standing to take in your men, you must leave
the whole street. If the buildings round us burn, we shall burn,
too--and with us your German wounded. Will you give me your word that
this whole quarter shall be safe?'

"The man did not answer. But he looked down at his boots. And I have
always noticed that, when men of any nation look at their boots, it is
that they are undecided. It was so with him. A few more arguments from
me, and he said: 'It shall be as you ask.'

"Soon he must have been glad of his promise, for there were many German
wounded, and we took them all in. Ah, this room, which you see so clean
and white now, ran blood. We had to sweep blood into the hall, and so
out at the front door, where at least it washed away the German
footprints from our floor! For days we worked and did our best, even
when we knew of the murders committed: innocent women with their little
children. And the fifteen old men they shot for hostages. Oh, we did our
best, though it was like acid eating our hearts. But our reward came the
day the Germans had to gather up their wounded in wild haste, as the
French commandant had gathered ours before the retreat. They fled, and
our Frenchmen marched back--too late to save the town, but not too late
to redeem its honour. And that is all my story."

As she finished with a smile half sad, half sweet, Soeur Julie looked
over our heads at some one who had just come in--some one who had stood
listening in silence, unheard and unseen by us. I turned mechanically,
and my eyes met the eyes of Paul Herter, the "Wandering Jew."

CHAPTER XV

Dierdre O'Farrell and I were sitting side by side, our backs to the
door, so it was only as we turned that Herter could have recognized us.
He had no scruple in showing that I was the last person he wished to
meet. One look was enough for him! His pale face--changed and aged since
London--flushed a dark and violent red. Backing out into the hall he
banged the door.

My ears tingled as if they had been boxed. I suppose I've been rather
spoiled by men. Anyhow, not one ever before ran away at sight of me, as
if I were Medusa. I'd been hoping that Doctor Paul and I might meet and
make friends, so this was