"If it is fine, you will wake me up."

His sister was afraid to ask more, as she guessed how he would use a
fine day. As she was silent, he pretended to pout with that cajoling
manner he could assume, and which fascinated everybody.

"You won't do it? I could not stay home: _c'est plus fort que moi_."

"But, I promise."

And to keep him at home until he should be cured, more or less, the
young girl opened her window every morning and inspected the sky,
secretly hoping to find it thickly covered with clouds.

"Clouds, waiting over there, motionless, on the edge of the horizon,
what are you waiting for? Will you stand idle and let me awaken my
brother, who is resting?"

The clouds being indifferent, the sleeper had to be awakened. He dressed
hastily, with a smile at the transparent sky, and soon reached
Vauciennes by automobile, where he called for his machine, mounted,
ascended, flew, hunted the enemy, and returned to Compiegne for
luncheon.

"And you can leave us like that?" remonstrated his mother. "Why, this is
your holiday."

"Yes, the effort to leave is all the greater."

"Well?--"

"I like the effort, _Maman_."

His Antigone forced herself to keep her bargain with him. The sun never
shone above the forest in vain, but nevertheless she detested the sun.
What a strange Romeo this boy would have made! Without the least doubt
he would have charged Juliet to wake him to go to battle, and would
never have forgiven her for confounding the lark and the nightingale.

On his return to the aviation camp, in the absence of his own
longed-for victories, he took pleasure in describing those of others. He
knew nothing of rivalry or envy. He wrote his sister Odette the
following description of a combat waged by Captain Brocard, who
surprised a Boche from the rear, approached him to within fifteen meters
without being seen, and, just at the moment when the enemy pilot turned
round his head, sent him seven cartridges from his machine-gun: "Result:
one ball in the ear, and another through the middle of his chest. You
can imagine whether the fall of the machine was instantaneous or not.
There was nothing left of the pilot but one chin, one ear, one mouth, a
torso and material enough to reconstitute two arms. As to the "_coucou_"
(burned), nothing was left but the motor and a few bits of iron. The
passenger was emptied out during the fall...." It cannot be said that he
had much consideration for the nerves of young girls