ove, the
flower-chain fell from their little white fingers and trailed along the
ground in a crimson line. The sun dropped toward the west, and thunder
began to roll: still they worked on! Their gentlemen-in-charge begged
them to start again, and at last they rose up petulantly to go; but they
had stayed too late. The storm burst. Lightning flashed; thunder roared;
rain fell in torrents; and--strange to see--the poppy petals melted, so
that the long chain of flowers turned to a liquid stream, red as a river
of blood. The princesses were frightened and began to cry. Their tears
fell into the crimson flood. Captain Devot, who seemed in his dream to
be one of the ladies' attendants, jumped from his horse to pick up the
princesses' tears, which turned into little, rattling stones as they
fell. With that, he waked. The princesses were gone--"all but
_Victoire_," he said, smiling, "she shall stay with us! The thunder was
the thunder of German guns. The poppies were there--and the blood was
there. So also were the stones that had been the princesses' tears. They
lie all along the Chemin des Dames to this day. I gathered some for my
wife, and if you like she will give a few to you, ladies--souvenirs of
the Ladies' Way!"

Of course we did like; so Dierdre and I each have a small, glistening
gray stone, with a faint splash of red upon it. I would not sell mine
for a pearl!

* * * * *

Father Beckett proposed to take his wife back to Paris; but while she
rested after the fever, industriously she built up another plan. You
remember, Padre, my telling you that the Becketts were negotiating for a
chateau, before they arrived in France to visit their son? When they
heard that Jim had fallen, they no longer cared to live in this chateau
(which was to let, furnished), nevertheless, they felt bound in honour
to stick to their bargain. Well, at Soissons, Mother Beckett had it
"borne in upon her" that Jim would wish his father and mother to stay at
the old house he had loved and coveted for himself.

"I can't go back across the sea and settle down at home while this war
goes on!" she said. "Home just wouldn't be _home_. It's too far away
from Jim. I don't mean from his _body_," she went on. "His body isn't
_Jim_, I know! I've thought that out, and made myself realize the truth
of it. But it's Jim's spirit I'm talking about, Father. I guess his
soul--Jim himself--won't care to be flitting back and forth, c