here some Agency had caused to be printed in colour the
words "Seek ye the _Lord_" she saw, in addition to the amazing oddness
of the Anglo-Saxon race, a dangerous incitement to unfaith. She kept
her thoughts passionately on the Virgin; and by the time the bus
had reached Hyde Park Corner she was utterly sure that the horrible
adventure of the Promenade was purged of its evil potentialities.

In the house in Cork Street she took out her latch-key, placidly
opened the door, and entered, smiling at the solitude. Marthe, who
also had a soul in need of succour, would, in the ordinary course,
have gone forth to a smaller church and a late mass. But on this
particular morning fat Marthe, in deshabille, came running to her from
the little kitchen.

"Oh! Madame!... There is someone! He is drunk."

Her voice was outraged. She pointed fearfully to the bedroom.
Christine, courageous, walked straight in. An officer in khaki was
lying on the bed; his muddy, spurred boots had soiled the white
lace coverlet. He was asleep and snoring. She looked at him, and,
recognising her acquaintance of the previous night, wondered what the
very clement Virgin could be about.

Chapter 17

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

"What is Madame going to do?" whispered Marthe, still alarmed and
shocked, when they had both stepped back out of the bedroom; and she
added: "He has never been here before."

Marthe was a woman of immense experience but little brains, and
when phenomena passed beyond her experience she became rather like
a foolish, raw girl. She had often dealt with drunken men; she had
often--especially in her younger days--satisfactorily explained a
situation to visitors who happened to call when her mistress for the
time being was out. But only on the very rarest occasions had she
known a client commit the awful solecism of calling before lunch;
and that a newcomer, even intoxicated, should commit this solecism
staggered her and left her trembling.

"What am I going to do? Nothing!" answered Christine. "Let him sleep."

Christine, too, was dismayed. But Marthe's weakness gave her strength,
and she would not show her fright. Moreover, Christine had some force
of character, though it did not often show itself as sudden firmness.
She condescended to Marthe. She also condescended to the officer,
because he was unconscious, because he had put himself in a false
position, because sooner or later he would look extremely silly. She
regarded the of