The Girl Philippa
devoid of malice, and the two were in the billiard room, which opened
from the northern terrace, for the purpose of Philippa's education in
the game of French billiards.
The Countess set her teacup aside and picked up her sewing.
"I don't intend to be driven out of my home," she remarked.
He lighted a cigarette and looked curiously into the north.
"Whether it's to be the wretched story of 1870 again or not," she went
on, "I shall not be frightened away from this house.
"This is my home. I came here a bride; my dear husband died under this
roof; all I care for in the world, all I hold most dear, most intimate,
is here, Jim. I shall not go."
He said gravely:
"I hope the necessity may never arise, Ethra."
"It will not. Are the Germans really barbarians? What object could they
have in injuring this old house? What good would it do them or their
country to disturb us here? If they come, we can't defend ourselves.
What is there for us to do except to submit? But I shall not go away and
leave this place to the mercies of their filthy soldiery."
Warner said nothing. There were many contingencies overlooked by this
determined lady--circumstances which might mean ruin to the house--if,
for instance, a retreating army chose to defend the Chateau. But he
remained silent, not caring to trouble her with the possibilities of
eventualities.
"I had rather you stayed, if you don't mind, Jim," she said, sewing away
serenely.
"Certainly."
The steady thud of the cannonade had now assumed a more substantial
rumbling sound.
Now and then separate shocks were audible, as though great pieces,
occasionally, were discharged singly, dominating the duller monotone of
lesser caliber.
He kept his eyes pretty constantly on the horizon line of smoke,
evidently expectant of some new development, now and then fancying that
it had become visible, as the calm sky became suffused with the delicate
pastel hues of early evening, and the first bat zigzagged among the
potted orange trees on the terrace.
And presently, in the early dusk, it became visible--first merely as a
dull tint reddening the distant smoke, then as a faint, ruddy line of
light, shifting, twinkling, sinking, flaring palely, then more redly as
the summer dusk deepened and possessed the silent world around them.
From northwest to southeast ran the flicker of the guns, with now and
then a wider flare and a deeper accent dominating the measured monotone.
Five fires were burning, also: two from hamlets or nearer groups of
buildings belonging to some big farm; the other three conflagrations
were farther distant, and much greater, as though three considerable
villages and their environs were in flames.
Philippa and Peggy came to the long, open windows from moment to moment,
standing there, cue in hand, to look out at the reddening sky.
It was still not too dusky to see fairly well, and the lamps had not yet
been lighted in the house, excepting the luster over the billiard table,
when a footman appeared on the terrace, dignified, correct, unruffled:
"The driveway and circle, Madame la Comtesse, are full of cavalry.
Their officers are dismounting; the troopers have gone into our stables
and garage."
The Countess rose quietly, and Warner stood up in silence.
"What cavalry is it?"
"Ours, Madame. They have taken out the three automobiles and all the
horses."
"Thank you." And, to Warner: "Would you mind coming with me, Jim?"
They entered the billiard room and traversed the house to the southern
terrace.
Drive and circle were swarming with the pale blue dolmans of hussars
moving in and out of the fan-shaped glare of electric torches, some
mounted, their lances held perpendicularly in the stirrup boots, others
afoot, leading up horses from the Chateau stables, pushing the three
automobiles along the garage drive, dragging vehicles of every
description by hand--hay wagons, farm wagons, long unused and
old-fashioned family carriages with the De Moidrey crest on their
panels.
Several officers in turquoise and silver, standing on the terrace,
surveyed the proceedings below, one of them turning the brilliant light
of his breast torch upon one spot after another and scarcely raising his
voice as he directed operations.
There was very little noise, no confusion; everybody seemed to know what
was to be done.
As the Countess de Moidrey and Warner came out upon the terrace, the
officers heard them, turned, saluted, and one of them, a slim, handsome
youth most beautifully molded into his uniform, came forward, crimson
cap in hand, bowing with a grace indescribable.
"Madame de Moidrey," he said, "we very deeply regret the military
necessity which temporarily deprives you of your cars and horses, but
the Government requires us to ask them of you and to offer you a
receipt----"
"The Government is welcome, Monsieur," she said earnestly. "If the
Government will accept what I have to offer as a gift, it will honor me
sufficiently without offering any receipt or promise of
indemnification."
"Countess," said the youthful soldier, bowing, "it is the answer any
soldier of France might expect from one who bears the name of De
Moidrey. Nevertheless, Madame, I am required to leave in your
possession a receipt for what you so graciously permit me to
requisition.... Permit me, Madame----" He drew from his dispatch pouch
the papers, already filled in, signed and stamped, and presented them
with a bow.
And, smilingly, Madame de Moidrey tore them across, again and again, and
dropped the fragments upon the terrace.
"Monsieur," she said, "may I not offer you the hospitality of the
house--some little refreshment for you and for your men?"
"Madame, we are overwhelmed, but our orders permit us no time."
Warner said quietly:
"If you could spare a moment, Captain, there is something I should like
you to see from the north terrace." And to the Countess: "May I take
him? I think he ought to see what we have seen."
Madame de Moidrey said:
"By all means, Jim."
And the two young men went swiftly through the house and out on the
north terrace.
"Ha!" exclaimed the officer, as the rumble of the cannonade struck his
ears, and he looked out on the dark circle of the horizon, all sparkling
and lighted up with the ruddy flicker and flare of the guns.
"A raid?" asked Warner quietly.
"I don't know. Villages are afire yonder. Have you seen anything that
might be of importance to us, Monsieur?"
"Two aeroplanes. The Ausone fort fired at them with sky-guns. They
went east."
"Biplanes?"
"Monoplanes, I think. I am not sure."
"Square-tipped ailerons? Could you see?"
"They were shaped exactly like kestrels."
"Ah! Taubes! Many thanks, Monsieur." He stared out across the
darkness. "Yes, it's warming up out there. Well, sir, I must go. And
thank you again for your kindness----" He fumbled in his dolman,
produced his cardcase. "May I be permitted to present my cards to
Madame de Moidrey? Thank you--if you would be so amiable----"
They retraced their steps through the house, encountering Peggy Brooks
in the hallway, who received a most ceremonious bow from the youthful
hussar, and who acknowledged it with an enchanting inclination of her
pretty head.
Within a few feet of the front terrace, the young officer suddenly
halted.
"Monsieur," he said, very red, "it would seem, perhaps, more courteous
for me to leave my cards for all the ladies of the household. Would it
not--under such unusual and unfortunate circumstances as those of this
evening?"
Warner looked at him gravely; he was very young, very ceremonious, very
much flushed. Was it possible that Peggy Brooks had bowled over this
young gentleman with her first smile?
"I think," said Warner, very seriously, "that it might be considered
obligatory for an officer who takes away all the horses and motor cars
to leave his card for every lady in the family. There are," he added,
"three."
Afterward, when the officer had taken his leave, and his escort of
hussars had trotted away with the horses, wagons, and automobiles,
Warner, much amused, related to the Countess the incident of the cards;
and he distributed them at dinner, reading the name engraved on his own
with some curiosity.
"Well, Peggy," he said, "you did murderous work with your smile this
evening."
She answered calmly:
"I hope so. He was exceedingly nice looking."
"Le Vicomte d'Aures," nodded Warner, "Captain of Cavalry! Very polite,
that youngster; very prolific of visiting cards. You should have seen
him blush, Peggy."
"I did. I repeat that he is a nice boy, and I hope he comes back and
steals something else."
Philippa laughed; the Countess smiled indulgently upon her younger
sister, and gave the signal to rise.
"The family comes from the West, I think," she remarked to Warner, as
she took his arm. "Goodness, Jim, what a nuisance!--Not a horse in the
stable, not a car to move about in. It looks to me as though we were
marooned here.... But I am very happy to think that I could do even a
little for our Government. I wish I could do more."
"You may have plenty of chances, Ethra," he said.
They walked through to the north terrace and stood for a while watching
the conflagrations on the horizon.
The vast, slightly curved line of flickering points of fire no longer
twinkled and played through the darkness, and the muttering of the
cannonade had ceased. Only the three incendiary foci reddened the sky,
their illuminated vapors billowing up and spreading away for leagues to
the eastward.
There was a mist this night, delicately veiling the tops of the forest
trees, and the perfume of lilies from the gardens saturated the night
air.
Usually, when foggy conditions prevailed over the valley of the
Recollette, the lights of Ausone were visible as a pinkish tinge in the
sky. But this night no such tint was apparent; no signal lamps sparkled
from the fort, not a light glimmered in the vast black void beyond,
where miles and miles of darkness stretched away unlighted even by the
wastes of star-set firmament above.
Ethra de Moidrey shrugged her pretty shoulders and turned back toward
the billiard room, whither Peggy Brooks had already repaired for
practice.
Philippa, remaining beside Warner, stood watching them through the
lighted windows.
She was wearing her first evening gown--one of Peggy's gifts--a dainty
affair of palest blue; and her full, smooth cheeks and throat accented
the slim immaturity of her arms and shoulders.
She looked up, smiled faintly, and moved nearer with that unconscious
instinct of youth for seeking contact where confidence and trust is
placed. Her slim fingers, touching his, nestled into his hand with an
eloquence unmistakable of innocent possession satisfied.
"You _are_ only a very little girl yet, aren't you, Philippa?" he said,
smiling, but touched by the youth of her and her frail shoulder resting
lightly against his own.
"I know I am, Jim. I seem to be growing younger under the warm shelter
of your kindness--under the security of this roof and the quiet sense of
protection everywhere.
"It is as though I had been arrested in development since I left
school--as though youth and growth had stopped and only my mind had
continued growing older and older and more tired during these last six
years--dull, bewildering, ignoble years--lonely, endless years that
dragged their days after them like a chain, heavier, heavier----"
She pressed a little closer to his shoulder:
"I had _nobody_. Do you understand? I seem to know right from wrong,
but I don't know how I know it. Yet, I am old in some things--old and
wearied with a knowledge which still, however, remains personally