“Nothing.”
“But you think she is alive, that we shall see her again?”
“I could not endure it if I believed otherwise.”
“They do send them back sometimes, don’t they? those who have been taken into Germany.”
“Sometimes, yes, when they are no longer of use.” He spoke in a bitter tone. Lucie sighed and hid her face again on her father’s breast to hide the gathering tears.
“I tried to be brave, papa,” she said brokenly. “I still try, but sometimes it is very hard.”
“Do I not know that, dear daughter?”
“But soldiers are always brave.”
“They try to be; they always are outwardly, but there are times when the spirit faints.”
“I am glad you tell me that, for there are days when my spirit goes down, down into the very depths, yet I am much better off than so many many others, than Odette, for instance. She has lost both her parents. You think there is no doubt she is in Germany?” She went back to the subject of her mother, of whom she rarely spoke to any one.