“Yet Odette is quite pretty; she has lovely eyes. She is not so good looking as Lucie, to be sure.”
“She should not be. She is a skinny little cabbage, but she will do. If she turns out as well as she has begun, she will not be half bad. I shall keep my eye on her.”
Paulette spoke meditatively and Miss Lowndes wondered a little what was in her mind. She was to discover in due course of time.
CHAPTER XIII
OLD FRIENDS AND NEW
THEN suddenly appeared Victor on his second permission, and wearing a sergeant’s stripes, won for his tact, his influence over the men, and for his bravery during a night raid. But of this exploit he would say nothing, merely laughing off the question when Lucie asked him how he had earned his promotion. “I did nothing at all, nothing more than any one would have done if he had had the same chance. They gave me my stripes simply because of my youthful beauty.”
He came in with a rush and a dash, immediately making the whole place seem fuller of life and action. “What’s all this I hear? What’s all this?” he asked after the first salutations, “going away, are you? Well, I can scarcely blame you. Where are you going?”
“We don’t know yet,” Lucie answered.
“Then I am wiser than you. I know, I know.”
“Then why did you ask?” Lucie gave his arm a little tap, making him drop the match with which he was lighting his cigarette. “You did it just to tease. How do you know?”
“Aha! Revenge! Revenge! I shall not tell you, because you spoiled my light.”