"
"Jean," she said unexpectedly, "why don't you tell me the truth? You
want me to leave the village to-night. Why?"
"Because, mademoiselle, there will be a bombardment."
"The village itself?"
"We expect it," he answered dryly.
Sara Lee went a little pale.
"But then I shall be needed, as I was before."
"No troops will pass through the town to-night. They will take a road
beyond the fields."
"How do you know these things?" she asked, wondering. "About the troops
I can understand. But the bombardment."
"There are ways of finding out, mademoiselle," he replied in his
noncommittal voice. "Now, will you go?"
"May I tell Marie and Rene?"
"No."
"Then I shall not go. How can you think that I would consider my own
safety and leave them here?"
Jean had ascertained before speaking that Marie was not in the house.
As for Rene, he sat on the single doorstep and whittled pegs on which to
hang his rifle inside the door. And as he carved he sang words of his
own to the tune of Tipperary.
Inside the little _salle a manger_ Jean reassured Sara Lee. It was
important--vital--that Rene and Marie should not know far in advance
of the bombardment.
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