is flesh and his blood. He
would die rather than leave it. And my uncle had the murder of my
father and mother on his brain. He told Pere Grigou to take me away,
but I stayed with him. It was Pere Grigou who forced us to hide. That
lasted two days. There was a well in the farm, and one night Pere
Grigou tied up my money and my mother's jewellery and my father's
papers, _enfin_, all the precious things we had, in a packet of
waterproof and sank it with a long string down the well, so that the
Germans could not find it. It was foolish, but he insisted. One day my
uncle and Pere Grigou went out of the little copse where we had been
hiding, in order to reconnoitre, for he thought the Germans might be
going away; and my uncle, who would not listen to me, took his gun.
Presently I heard a shot--and then another. You can guess what it
meant. And soon Pere Grigou came, white and shaking with terror. '_Il
en a tue un, et on l'a tue!_'"

"My God!" said Doggie again.

"It was terrible," she said. "But they were in their right."

"And then?"

"We lay hidden until it was dark--how they did not find us I don't
know--and then we escaped across country. I thought of coming here to
my Aunt Morin, which is not far from La Folette, but I reflected that
soon the Boches would be here also. And we went on. We got to a high
road--and once more I was among troops and refugees. I met some kind
folks in a carriage, a Monsieur and Madame Tarride, and they took me
in. And so I got to Paris, where I had the hospitality of a friend of
the Convent who was married."

"And Pere Grigou?"

"He insisted on going back to bury my uncle. Nothing could move him.
He had not parted from him all his life. They were foster-brothers.
Where he is now, who knows?" She paused, looked again at her ghosts,
and continued: "That is all, Monsieur Trevor. The Germans passed
through here and repassed on their retreat, and, as soon as it was
safe, I came to help my aunt, who was _souffrante_, and had lost her
son. Also because I could not live on charity on my friend, for,
_voyez-vous_, I was without a sou--all my money having been hidden in
the well by Pere Grigou."

Doggie leant his elbows on the table.

"And you have come through all that, Mademoiselle Jeanne, just as you
are----?"

"How, just as I am?"

"So gentle and kind and comprehending?"

Her cheek flushed. "I am not the only Frenchwoman who has passed
through such things and kept herself proud. But