Jean sat down on the edge of his bed and put on his shoes and puttees.
He was a taciturn man, but now he had something to say that he did not like to say.And Henri knew it.
"What is it?" he asked, his arms under his head."Come, let us have it! It is, of course, about the American lady.""It is," Jean said bluntly."You cannot mix women and war." "And you think I am doing that?""I am not an idiot," Jean growled."You do not know what you are doing.I do.She is young and lonely.You are young and not unattractive to women.Already she turns pale when I so much as ask if she has heard from you.""You asked her that?"
"You were gone much longer than -"
"And you thought I might send her word, and not you!" Henri's voice was offended.He lay back while the boy brought in the morning coffee and rolls.
"Let me tell you something," he said when the boy had gone."She is betrothed to an American.She wears a betrothal ring.I am to her - the French language!"But though Henri laughed Jean remained grave and brooding.For Henri had not said what Sara Lee already was to him.
It was later in the morning that Henri broached the subject again.They were in the courtyard of an old house, working over the engine of the car.
"I think I have found a location for the young American lady," he said.Jean hammered for a considerable time at a refractory rim.
"And where?" he asked at last.
Henri named the little town.Like Henri's family name, it must not be told.Too many things happened there, and perhaps it is even now Henri's headquarters.For that portion of the line has changed very little.
Jean fell to renewed hammering.
"If you will be silent I shall explain a plan," Henri said in a cautious tone."She will make soup, with help which we shall find.And if coming in for refreshments a soldier shall leave a letter for me it is natural, is it not?""She will suspect, of course."
"I think not.And she reads no French.None whatever."Yet Jean's suspicions were not entirely allayed.The plan had its advantages.It was important that Henri receive certain reports, and already the hotel whispered that Henri was of the secret service.It brought him added deference, of course, but additional danger.
So Jean accepted the plan, but with reservation.And it was not long afterward that he said to Sara Lee, in French: "There is a spider on your neck, mademoiselle."But Sara Lee only said, "I'm sorry, Jean; you'll have to speak English to me for a while, I'm afraid."And though he watched her for five minutes she did not put her hand to her neck.
However, that was later on.That afternoon Henri spent an hour with the Minister of War.And at the end of that time he said: "Thank you, Baron.I think you will not regret it.America must learn the truth, and how better than through those friendly people who come to us to help?"It is as well to state, however, that he left the Minister of War with the undoubted impression that Miss Sara Lee Kennedy was a spinster of uncertain years.
Sara Lee packed her own suitcase that afternoon, doing it rather nervously because Henri was standing in the room by the window waiting for it.He had come in as matter-of-factly as Harvey had entered the parlor at Aunt Harriet's, except that he carried in his arms some six towels, a cake of soap and what looked suspiciously like two sheets.
"The house I have under consideration," he said, "has little to recommend it but the building, and even that - The occupants have gone away, and - you are not a soldier."Sara Lee eyed the bundle.
"I don't need sheets," she expostulated.
"There are but two.And Jean has placed blankets in the car.You must have a pillow also."He calmly took one of the hotel pillows from the bed."What else?" heasked calmly."Cigarettes? But no, you do not smoke." Sara Lee eyed him with something very like despair."Aren't you ever going to let me think for myself?""Would you have thought of these?" he demanded triumphantly."You- you think only of soup and tired soldiers.Some one must think of you."And there was a touch of tenderness in his voice.Sara Lee felt it and trembled slightly.He was so fine, and he must not think of her that way.It was not real.It couldn't be.Men were lonely here, where everything was hard and cruel.They wanted some of the softness of life, and all of kindness and sweetness that she could give should be Henri's.But she must make it clear that there could never be anything more.
There was a tightness about her mouth as she folded the white frock."I know that garment," he said boyishly."Do you remember the nightyou wore it? And how we wandered in the square and made the plan that has brought us together again?"Sara Lee reached down into her suitcase and brought up Harvey's picture.
"I would like you to see this," she said a little breathlessly."It is the man I am to marry."For a moment she thought Henri was not going to take it.But he came, rather slowly, and held out his hand for it.He went with it to the window and stood there for some time looking down at it.
"When are you going to marry him, mademoielle? "As soon as I go back."Sara Lee had expected some other comment, but he made none.He put the photograph very quietly on the bed before her, and gathered up the linen and the pillow in his arms.
"I shall send for your luggage, mademoiselle.And you will find me at the car outside, waiting."And so it was that a very silent Henri sat with Jean going out to that strange land which was to be Sara Lee's home for many months.And a very silent Sara Lee, flanked with pillow and blankets, who sat back alone and tried to recall the tones of Harvey's voice.
And failed.
