"

"Just hear him raving," sighed his wife. "You know well enough,
Laurent, that just so soon as the war is over we're going to sell out,
and with the money, your pension, and what we've saved up, we'll go out
to the Parc St. Maur, buy a little cottage and settle down. I'll raise
a few chickens and some flowers, and you can go fishing in the Seine
all day long."

"But the economical struggle?"

"You let the economical struggle take care of itself. Now, with your
mad idea, just suppose those who had a right foot all wanted tan shoes,
and those who had a left couldn't stand anything but black? I'd like
to know where you'd be then? Stranger things than that have happened."

Laurent gazed at his wife in admiration.

"With all your talk about the future, it seems to me we've been down
here a long time since that last explosion."

One woman looked for her husband but could not find him. The Rembrandt
Christhead had also disappeared.

A tall fifteen year old lad who stood near the door informed us that
they had slipped out to see.

"So has Germain."

"Then you come here! Don't you dare leave me," scolded the mother.
"Can you just see something happening to him with his father out there
in the trenches?"

Monsieur Neu and two other men soon followed suit.

The big boy who had so recently been admonished managed to crawl from
beneath his mother's gaze and make his escape.

"If ever I catch him, he'll find out what my name is," screamed the
excited woman, dashing after him into the darkness.

Then, presently, one by one we took our way towards the hall, and the
cellar seemed empty.

The tall boy came back to the entrance, all excitement.

"We saw where it fell!" he panted. "There are some wounded. The
police won't let you go near. There's lots and lots of people out
there. Where's mamma?"

"She's looking for you!"

He was off with a bound.

The instinct to see, to know what is going on is infinitely stronger
than that of self preservation. Many a soldier has told me that, and I
have often had occasion to prove it personally.

Some of the women started towards the street.

"We're only going as far as the door," said they by way of excuse.
"You're really quite safe beneath the portico." And they carried their
babies with them.

So when the final signal of safety was sounded, there remained below
but a few old women, a couple of very small children, and Monsieur
Leddin, whom nothing seemed t