“So soon as I can I will go, Miss Lucy. But first I have some work to do, and the Sergeant must sign us the permissions for to-day.”
“Oh, all right,” agreed Lucy, somewhat pacified at sight of the breakfast Elizabeth was placing on the table.
It was a beautiful early summer morning, with white clouds piled against the soft blue sky, and the sun just warm enough to make the shade feel pleasant. After the unusual heat of the past few days it was exhilarating to both mind and body. Lucy felt filled to the brim with life and energy. In spite of herself her spirits soared with hope and confidence in better things to come. Somehow she believed to-day, when she and Elizabeth set out from the hospital half an hour later, that Château-Plessis must soon be restored to its rightful owners. It seemed as though this nightmare of German conquest were but a passing thing and could be bravely borne with that assurance.
There was nothing whatever to suggest a change for the better in reality as they crossed the town. The guns were still silent, except for scattered shots, the German sentries still kept guard over the desolate streets, and the gangs of unhappy old men and boys labored at the piles of débris in sullen submission. Still Lucy’s spirits refused to be much dampened. In her mind she debated schemes for carrying food to Captain Beattie, resolving to tell Michelle all about the prisoner at the first opportunity.
“Look, Miss Lucy,” said Elizabeth, presently, as they neared the southeastern part of the town. “There is the house of Madame de la Tour.” She pointed down the street to a little brick house with a gabled roof. “It is one that she owns before, but now she goes there to live, because it is not much by the shells hurt.”
In a minute they stopped in front of the door and Lucy asked eagerly, “May I go in and see them now? Will you come back for me?” She glanced along the street, which was deserted except for a shuffling old woman making her weary way toward the food depot, and looked back at Elizabeth, who answered thoughtfully:
“I will be only an hour gone, but no longer can I wait to take you back. I have plenty work to do in the hospital to-day. Anyway, you will have with your friend a little visit. But first I wait to see if she is here.”
Lucy ran up the short flight of steps and was just about to knock on the door when it opened and Michelle herself stood on the threshold, smiling a welcome.
“I have seen you by the window,” she explained, “so I came to open.”
“Oh, I’m so glad you are at home,” said Lucy, delighted. “All right, Elizabeth! Don’t forget to come back for me.”