I was not astonished; in fact I gave the matter but little heed.  We had taken our resolutions the night before and had no time to stop every five minutes and question as to whether we were right or wrong.  At noon, however, when an old peasant woman called me through the kitchen window and announced that all Charly was leaving post haste, I must admit that I winced, but only for a second.  If I had listened to all the different rumors that had been noised abroad within the last week I would have been a fit subject for a lunatic asylum by then!

Resolved, however, to get at the core of the matter, I sent George to Charly (our market town, four miles away) to see what he could find out.  He returned on his bicycle at luncheon time, bearing the following astonishing information.

The hotel keeper and his wife, alarmed by the arrival of the Soissonais, had taken their auto and started for that city in quest of news.  They had returned an hour later, having been unable to pass Oulchy-le-Chateau, fifteen miles from Charly, where all the bridges were cut or blown up!  They were making their preparations for departure.

“And,” continued George, in an excited tone, “as I came past the Gendarmerie the brigadier called to me and said good-bye.  All the gendarmes had received orders to leave at once for their depot at—.”  (The name of some town the other side of the Marne, which I cannot remember.)

Instead of frightening me this information stimulated my nerves, which were beginning to be depressed by much work and little news.

“Good,” I said.  “Now then, we can expect the soldiers at any minute.  Poke up the fire, Julie, and we’ll fall to work to have hot soup ready when our boys arrive.”

Then we were really going to be in the excitement.  How glorious to be able to help—­for in my mind ours was the only solution possible to the question.

I set to work with renewed vigor and, as on the day before, we were constantly in demand by refugees requiring treatment and attention.  How well I remember a group of four, two men and two women, who staggered into the court and timidly knocked at the window.  Three of them were glad to accept soup and wine, but the fourth, a middle-aged woman, sank down on the steps and buried her head in her hands.

“Why doesn’t one of you men relieve her of that heavy parcel she has strapped to her shoulders?” I asked.

“She won’t let us touch it.  She’s never put it aside a minute since we left home six days ago!”

“Is it as precious as all that?” I queried, eyeing the huge flat package which might have been the size of the double sheet of some daily paper.

“It’s her son’s picture.  He’s gone to the army and she’s alone in the world.”

“But why on earth is she carrying frame, glass, and all?  It must be nearly killing her in this heat!”

“Madame,” said the woman’s friend solemnly, “she worked six months and put all her savings into that frame!  Do you wonder she did not wish to leave it behind!”