“Have you then gone back to playing with dolls?”
“Oh, no, no. You don’t understand. These are Nenette and Rintintin. Madame Blondot told me of them yesterday and gave me the material for making them. She has sent a pair to her son. One makes them, you see, to give to a poilu for good luck. They carry good fortune, Madame said, protect from danger. They must be given voluntarily. The soldier does not ask for them or that takes away the charm. So then, these are for Victor and these for papa.”
Paulette examined them with interest. She was as full of superstitions as most peasant folk. “One never can tell,” she remarked, “a little thing that seems ridiculous, a horseshoe, for instance, brings good luck. It is worth while not to pass by anything. I have no capacity for making such things; if I had—”
She paused but Lucie understood that she wished that her boy might have two of the farcical little mascots. He shall have, Lucie told herself, remembering those Odette was keeping for some soldier. Why not Jean?
Then came Victor to make his adieux and to get the little parcel to take to Honoré. “It seems much smaller than it did,” he said as Lucie handed it to him.
She laughed. “And yet I have not abstracted the socks. Here also, Victor, is something for you; Nenette and Rintintin.”
“Ah-h!” Victor took them with a pleased look. “You made them for me?”
“I made them, though Odette helped; she is so clever, you know. They bear a charm, as perhaps you have heard. They will keep danger from you.”
“They will do something else; they will remind me of my little friend, Lucie, who has taken the trouble to make them for me.” He fastened them to his coat. “I made inquiries about your father to-day and learn that he has been removed to another place, a chateau, where he, with other convalescents, will remain till they can return to their regiments. I have written to him, and have asked him to communicate with you as soon as possible. Here is his address.”
“I am glad, so glad. A thousand thanks, dear Victor, for doing this. But my mother, my mother?”