Chérie quivered and tightened her grasp on Louise's hand.
"Where is this Fritz Müller?" asked the captain, looking about him.
"Downstairs," answered the lieutenant. "He was the man who opened the door for us."
"Well, put him in charge of the billets and see that he provides for twenty men," said the captain. "Now, as for us——" he took the paper from the other's hand. He turned it round and looked at the plan of the house roughly drawn on the back of the sheet. "Let me see ... three rooms on this floor ... four on the next ... Glotz?" to the other and youngest officer standing silent and erect before him. "Come with me, Glotz. And bring an orderly with you." Then he glanced at Louise and Chérie. "Von Wedel"—the light-eyed officer stood at attention—"you stay here." The captain turned on his heel and marched up the stairs, followed by the second lieutenant whom he had called Glotz and two of the soldiers. The other four stood in the hall drawn up in a row, stiff and motionless as automatons.
Von Wedel shut the door in their faces; then he turned his gaze on the three women left in his charge. He moved slowly, deliberately towards them and they backed away from him, still holding each other's hands and looking up at him with starry, startled eyes. He was very tall and broad, and towered above them. He gazed at them a long time, his very light eyes roving from Louise to Chérie, from Chérie to Mireille and back to Chérie again.
"Well, turtle-doves," he said, at last, and laughed, "did you expect us?" The three pairs of startled eyes still looked up at him. "Is it really in our honour that you put on all this finery?"
He moved a step nearer, and again all three drew back. "Well, why don't you answer?"
Louise stepped a little in front of the other two as if to shield them; then she spoke in low and quavering tones—
"Monsieur.... I hope ... that you and your friends ... will be good enough to leave this house very soon.... We are alone here——"
"Permit us then to keep you company," said Von Wedel, and added, in a tone of amiable interrogation, "Your husband is not here?"