And, greedy after his victory, he
added: "But I oughtn't to keep you?"
"I want to stay, too."
The frill flowed on with the beat of the Cathedral clock, and came to an
end.
"Now I must go. It's supper--supper in the garage."
He walked with her almost in silence down the Cathedral steps and to the
door of the house in the dark street by the river.
"You do say good-bye so curiously," he remarked, "so suddenly. Perhaps
it's English."
"Perhaps it is," she agreed, disappearing into the house.
"What have you got there?" said her companions in the lighted room
upstairs.
"My dress for the dance." But she did not open the parcel to show them
the charmed frills. ("How is it they don't know that I left him in the
street below?") She looked at the seven travellers who met each night
round the table for dinner, overcome with the mystery of those
uncommunicating, shrouded heads. "What have they all been doing?"
"Has every one had runs?"
"Yes, every one has been out. What have you been doing?"
"I haven't left Metz to-day," she replied, giddy with the isolation and
the silence of the human mind.
CHAPTER VII
THE THREE "CLIENTS"
"What!" cried Fanny on Monday morning, staring at the _brigadier_ and at
the pink paper he offered her.
"At once, at once, mademoiselle. You ought to have been told last night.
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