by this time to keep both hands hidden from sight as a hearty
shake is a jarring event). I asked him to sit down. "Bein' as you might
say fellow artistes; 'aving appeared so often on the same platform, I
had to come," he said affably! "I promised 'the boys' (old labour men of
about fifty and sixty years) I'd try and get a glimpse of you," he
continued, and he sat there and told me all the funny things he could
think of, or rather, they merely bubbled forth naturally.

The weather--it was June then--got fearfully hot, and I found life
irksome to a degree, lying flat on my back unable to move, gazing at the
wonderful glass candelabra hanging from the middle of the ceiling. How I
wished each little crystal could tell me a story of what had happened in
this room where fortunes had been lost and won! It would have passed the
time at least.

A friend had a periscope made for me, a most ingenious affair, through
which I was able to see people walking on the sands, and above all
horses being taken out for exercise in the mornings.

The first W.A.A.C.s came out to France about this time, and I watched
them with interest through my periscope. I heard that a sand-bagged
dug-out had also been made for us in camp, and tin hats handed out; a
wise precaution in view of the bricks and shrapnel that rattled about
when we went out during air raids. I never saw the dug-out of course. We
had a mild air-raid one night, but no damage was done.

My faithful friends kept me well posted with all the news, and I often
wonder on looking back if it had not been for them how ever I could have
borne life. The leg still jumped when I least expected it, and of course
I was never out of actual pain for a minute.

One day, it was June then, the dressings were done at least an hour
earlier than usual, and the Colonel came in full of importance and
ordered the other two beds to be taken out of the ward. The Sister
could get nothing out of him for a long time. All he would say was that
the French Governor-General was going to give me the freedom of the
city! She knew he was only ragging and got slightly exasperated. At
last, as a great secret, he whispered to me that I was going to be
decorated with the French _Croix de Guerre_ and silver star. I was
dumbfounded for some minutes, and then concluded it was another joke and
paid no more attention. But the room was being rapidly cleared and I was
more and more puzzled. He arranged the vases of flowers wh