“No, I had been in a hospital for this,” he touched his empty sleeve, “and was discharged, but I could not stay away, and when I learned that the towns were being evacuated, and that those who had been under German control were being liberated, I asked the boys to do something I could not do, so they did this and when your mother came through the place where I was I joined her and we came on together. I wanted to come, you know, to see—Pom Pom.”
“Look here,” Philip broke in, “it doesn’t seem to me that he’s telling that right. There’s too little of it. I can’t understand it all, you know, but I can make out quite a lot. Better let me tell it. The boy was just out of the hospital. He was to go home. Does he go? Not a bit of it. He works it so he gets permission to help at one of the Red Cross stations. He told them that he wished above all things to discover the whereabouts of one Madame Louise Du Bois. She was supposed to be interned in one of the towns held by the Germans, unless she had been deported to Germany. He talked so persistently and interested so many persons that the word was passed along and your precious mother was finally located and sent on to this Red Cross station where Mons. Victor Guerin met her and escorted her to her own home.”
“What is this he says?” asked Victor, hearing his name.
“Never mind,” said Lucie. “It is nothing to your discredit, Victor. In fact I find you a hero, you dear, good Victor, for you discovered my mother.”
“I did nothing at all. I simply made inquiries and asked others to do the same.”
“But it was through you that she was able to come home. You found her.”
“I did not find her. They of the Croix Rouge did that and sent us here. At the canteen in this town we find your uncle.”
“Aha!” exclaimed Lucie. “And how long, my sly uncle, had you been there?”
Philip colored up and laughed a trifle confusedly. “Really it was only a few minutes. I was coming here right away. As I was saying, Louise, mother would not say a word to discourage my coming.”
Lucie gently touched Victor’s empty sleeve. “It is very sad,” she said softly. “I wish I could tell you how I feel for you.”