As yet no dusters, sheets or kitchen
pans could be bought, but to-day in the Spanish Square every shop was
filled to overflowing with rolls of ladies' stays; even the chemist had
put a pair in the corner of his window. Fanny inquired the cause. A
truck had arrived filled with nothing but stays. It was very unfortunate
as they had expected condensed milk, but they had accepted the truck,
as, no doubt, they would find means of selling them--for there were
women in the country round who had not seen a pair for years.
A man appeared in the Square selling boots from Paris--the first to come
to the town with leather soles instead of wooden ones. Instantly there
was a crowd round him.
It was dark now and the electric street lamps were lit round the
pedestal of the Spanish Duke. The organisation of the town was jerky,
and often the lights would come on when it was daylight and often
disappear when it was dark. Where Germans had been there were always
electric light and telephones. No matter how sparse the furniture in the
houses, how ragged the roof, how patched the windows--what tin cans,
paper and rubbish lay heaped upon the floors, the electric light
unfailingly illumined all, the telephone hung upon the wall among the
peeling paper.
A little rain began to fall lightly and she hurried to her rooms.
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