ficers, who saluted her
respectfully enough. "You will never get to Paris... France and England
will be too strong for you... Germany will be destroyed before this war
ends." They laughed at her and said: "We shall be in Paris in a week
from now. Have you a little diary, Madame?" Madame Carpentier was
haughty with them. Some women of Amiens--poor drabs--did not show any
haughtiness, nor any pride, with the enemy who crowded into the city on
their way toward Paris. A girl told me that she was looking through the
window of a house that faced the Place de la Gare, and saw a number of
German soldiers dancing round a piano-organ which was playing to
them. They were dancing with women of the town, who were laughing
and screeching in the embrace of big, blond Germans. The girl who was
watching was only a schoolgirl then. She knew very little of the evil
of life, but enough to know that there was something in this scene
degrading to womanhood and to France. She turned from the window and
flung herself on her bed and wept bitterly...

I used to call in at the bookshop for a chat now and then with Madame
and Mademoiselle Carpentier, while a crowd of officers came in and out.
Madame was always merry and bright in spite of her denunciations of
the "Sale Boches--les brigands, les bandits!" and Mademoiselle put
my knowledge of French to a severe but pleasant test. She spoke with
alarming rapidity, her words tumbling over one another in a cascade of
volubility delightful to hear but difficult to follow. She had a strong
mind--masterly in her methods of business--so that she could serve
six customers at once and make each one think that her attention was
entirely devoted to his needs--and a very shrewd and critical idea
of military strategy and organization. She had but a poor opinion of
British generals and generalship, although a wholehearted admiration
for the gallantry of British officers and men; and she had an intimate
knowledge of our preparations, plans, failures, and losses. French
liaison-officers confided to her the secrets of the British army; and
English officers trusted her with many revelations of things "in the
wind." But Mademoiselle Carpentier had discretion and loyalty and did
not repeat these things to people who had no right to know. She would
have been far more efficient as a staff officer than many of the young
gentlemen with red tabs on their tunics who came into the shop, flipping
beautiful top-boots with ridin