e." The maid wept bitterly now and
then, but the young husband said: "We will take care of you, Margot.
There is nothing to fear. We are lucky in our escape." He was a delicate
fellow, rejected for military service, but brave. They came to Amiens,
and hired the estaminet and set up business. There was a heavy debt to
work off for capital and expenses before they would make money, but they
were doing well. The mother was happy with her children, and the little
maid had dried her tears. Then one day the young husband went away with
the little maid and all the money, leaving his wife in the estaminet
with a big debt to pay and a broken heart.

"That is what the war has done to me," she said again, picking up the
photograph of the girl in the evening frock with a little curl on each
cheek.

"C'est triste, Madame!"

"Oui, c'est triste, Monsieur!"

But it was not war that had caused her tragedy, except that it had
unloosened the roots of her family life. Guy de Maupassant would have
given just such an ending to his story.

IX

Some of our officers stationed in Amiens, and billeted in private
houses, became very friendly with the families who received them.
Young girls of good middle class, the daughters of shopkeepers and
schoolmasters, and merchants in a good way of business, found it
delightful to wait on handsome young Englishmen, to teach them French,
to take walks with them, and to arrange musical evenings with other
girl friends who brought their young officers and sang little old French
songs with them or English songs in the prettiest French accent. These
young officers of ours found the home life very charming. It broke the
monotony of exile and made them forget the evil side of war. They paid
little gallantries to the girls, bought them boxes of chocolate until
fancy chocolate was forbidden in France, and presented flowers to
decorate the table, and wrote amusing verses in their autograph albums
or drew sketches for them. As this went on they gained to the privilege
of brotherhood, and there were kisses before saying "good night" outside
bedroom doors, while the parents downstairs were not too watchful,
knowing the ways of young people, and lenient because of their
happiness. Then a day came in each one of these households when the
officer billeted there was ordered away to some other place. What tears!
What lamentations! And what promises never to forget little Jeanne with
her dark tresses, or Suzan