d sometimes deck himself
out in them all, or carry them in his pocket and occasionally empty them
out on a table, as at school he used to tumble out the untidy contents
of his desk in search of his task.

When he went to Paris to see to his machines, he first secured a room at
the Hotel Edouard VII, and immediately posted to the Buc works. When he
had time he would invite himself to dinner at the house of his
schoolmate at the College Stanislas, Lieutenant Constantin. "Every time
he came," this officer writes, "some new exploit or a new decoration had
been added to his list. He never wore all his medals, his 'village-band
banner,' as he amusingly called them; but when people asked to see them,
he immediately searched his pockets and produced the whole disorderly
lot. When he became officer in the Legion, he appeared at my mother's
quite radiant, so that she asked him the reason of this unusual joy.
'Regardez bien, madame, there is something new.' The new thing which my
mother discovered was a tiny _rosette_ ornamenting his red ribbon."

This _rosette_ was so very small that nobody noticed it, and Guynemer
felt that he must complain to the shopman at the Palais Royal who had
sold it to him.

"Give me a larger one, a huge one," he said; "nobody sees this."

* * * * *

The tradesman spread a number of _rosettes_ on his counter, but Guynemer
only took back again the one of which he had complained, and went out
laughing as if the whole thing had been a good joke.

His officer's stripes gave him as much pleasure as his decorations.
Every time he was promoted, he wanted his stripes sewn on, not in a day
or an hour, or even five minutes, but immediately. He received his
captain's commission the same day he had been given the Distinguished
Service order, and he promptly went to see his friend, Captain de la
Tour, who was wounded in the hospital at Nancy. This officer had lost
three brothers in action, and loved Guynemer as if he had been another
younger brother. Indeed, Guynemer said later that La Tour loved him more
than any other did.

"Don't you see any change in me?" Guynemer asked.

"No, you're just as usual."

"No, there's a change!"

"Oh, I see; you mean your English order; it does look well."

"There's something else. Look closer."

La Tour at last discovered the three stripes on the cap and sleeves.

"What! Are you a captain?"

"Yes, a captain," and Guynemer laughed his bo