ficer's intrusion as tiresome, but she did not
gravely resent it. After all, he was drunk; and before the row in the
Promenade he had asked her for her card, saying that he was engaged
that night but would like to know where she lived. Of course she had
protested--as what woman in her place would not?--against the theory
that he was engaged that night, and she had been in a fair way to
convince him that he was not really engaged that night--except morally
to her, since he had accosted her--when the quarrel had supervened
and it had dawned on her that he had been in the taciturn and cautious
stage of acute inebriety.

He had, it now seemed, probably been drinking through the night. There
were men, as she knew, who simply had to have bouts, whose only method
to peace was to drown the demon within them. She would never knowingly
touch a drunken man, or even a partially intoxicated man, if she
could help it. She was not a bit like the polite young lady above, who
seemed to specialise in noisy tipplers. Her way with the top-heavy
was to leave them to recover in tranquillity. No other way was safe.
Nevertheless, in the present instance she did venture again into the
bedroom. The plight of the lace coverlet troubled her and practically
drove her into the bedroom. She got a little towel, gently lifted the
sleeper's left foot, and tied the towel round his boot; then she did
the same to his other foot. The man did not stir; but if, later, he
should stir, neither his boots nor his spurs could do further harm to
the lace coverlet. His cane and gloves were on the floor; she picked
them up. His overcoat, apparently of excellent quality, was still on
his back; and the cap had not quite departed from his head. Christine
had learned enough about English military signs and symbols to enable
her to perceive that he belonged to the artillery.

"But how will madame change her dress?" Marthe demanded in the
sitting-room. Madame always changed her dress immediately on returning
from church, for that which is suitable for mass may not be proper to
other ends.

"I shall not change," said Christine.

"It is well, madame."

Christine was not deterred from changing by the fact that the bedroom
was occupied. She retained her church dress because she foresaw the
great advantage she would derive from it in the encounter which must
ultimately occur with the visitor. She would not even take her hat
off.

The two women lunched, mainly on macaron