“And we may get shelled now,” he added, hopefully.  “They shell this town whenever they think of it.  Perhaps they’ll shell us at tea.”

It was a quaintly beautiful little place, with its mixture of French and German ideas; its old bridge and gentle-minded river, between the cultivated hills.  The sand-bagged cellar doors, the ruined houses, and the holes in the pavement looked as unreal as the violences of a cinema against that soft and simple setting.  The people were abroad in the streets, and the little children were playing.  A big shell gives notice enough for one to get to shelter, if the shelter is near enough.  That appears to be as much as any one expects in the world where one is shelled, and that world has settled down to it.  People’s lips are a little firmer, the modelling of the brows is a little more pronounced, and, maybe, there is a change in the expression of the eyes; but nothing that a casual afternoon caller need particularly notice.

CASES FOR HOSPITAL

The house where we took tea was the “big house” of the place, old and massive, a treasure house of ancient furniture.  It had everything that the moderate heart of man could desire —­gardens, garages, outbuildings, and the air of peace that goes with beauty in age.  It stood over a high cellarage, and opposite the cellar door was a brand-new blindage of earth packed between timbers.  The cellar was a hospital, with its beds and stores, and under the electric light the orderly waited ready for the cases to be carried down out of the streets.

“Yes, they are all civil cases,” said he.

They come without much warning—­a woman gashed by falling timber; a child with its temple crushed by a flying stone; an urgent amputation case, and so on.  One never knows.  Bombardment, the Boche text-books say, “is designed to terrify the civil population so that they may put pressure on their politicians to conclude peace.”  In real life, men are very rarely soothed by the sight of their women being tortured.

We took tea in the hall upstairs, with a propriety and an interchange of compliments that suited the little occasion.  There was no attempt to disguise the existence of a bombardment, but it was not allowed to overweigh talk of lighter matters.  I know one guest who sat through it as near as might be inarticulate with wonder.  But he was English, and when Alan asked him whether he had enjoyed himself, he said:  “Oh, yes.  Thank you very much.”

“Nice people, aren’t they?” Alan went on.

“Oh, very nice.  And—­and such good tea.”

He managed to convey a few of his sentiments to Alan after dinner.

“But what else could the people have done?” said he.  “They are French.”

VI

THE COMMON TASK OF A GREAT PEOPLE