She glanced aside. "There isn't a woman in Frelus who is differently
treated. I am only an ignorant girl, half bourgeoise, half peasant,
monsieur, but I have my woman's knowledge--and I know there is a
difference between you and the others. You are a son of good family.
It is evident. You have a delicacy of mind and of feeling. You were
not born to be a soldier."

"Mademoiselle Jeanne," cried Doggie, "do I appear as bad as that? Do
you take me for an _embusque manque_?"

Now an _embusque_ is a slacker who lies in the safe ambush of a soft
job. And an _embusque manque_ is a slacker who fortuitously has
failed to win the fungus wreath of slackerdom.

She flushed deep red.

"_Je ne suis pas malhonnete, monsieur._"

Doggie spread himself elbow-wise over the table. The girl's visible
register of moods was fascinating.

"Pardon, Mademoiselle Jeanne. You are quite right. But it's not a
question of what I was born to be--but what I was trained to be. I
wasn't trained to be a soldier. But I do my best."

She looked at him waveringly.

"Forgive me, mademoiselle."

"But you flash out on the point of honour."

Doggie laughed. "Which shows that I have the essential of the
soldier."

Doggie's manner was not without charm. She relented.

"You know very well what I mean," she said rebukingly. "And you don't
deserve that I should tell it to you. It was my intention to say that
you have sacrificed many things to make yourself a simple soldier."

"Only a few idle habits," said Doggie.

"You joined, like the rest, as a volunteer."

"Of course."

"You abandoned everything to fight for your country?"

Under the spell of her dark eyes Doggie spoke according to Phineas
after the going West of Taffy Jones, "I think, Mademoiselle Jeanne, it
was rather to fight for my soul."

She resumed her sewing. "That's what I meant long ago," she remarked
with the first draw of the needle. "No one could fight for his soul
without passing through suffering." She went on sewing. Doggie,
shrinking from a reply that might have sounded fatuous, remained
silent; but he realized a wonderful faculty of comprehension in
Jeanne.

After awhile he said: "Where did you learn all your wisdom,
Mademoiselle Jeanne?"

"At the convent, I suppose. My father gave me a good education."

"An English poet has said, 'Knowledge comes, but Wisdom
lingers'"--Doggie had rather a fight to express the meaning exactly in
French--"You don't gather wisdom in