"But suppose there are cows on the road?"
"My little one, it is impossible to permit cows to stand in the way of la patrie et la gloire. I will conduct you outside the Castle gates and you must find your way home. As for me, this time I will go to the war. Vive la France!"
Mary stood in the ruined gateway, waving her hand to Pierre who went running and skipping along the white road after those faint-heard, those elusive drum-taps that might have been anywhere and seemed to be everywhere.
"We shall meet again after the war," he had called back to her.
Mademoiselle sent for Monsieur Menard and begged him not to interfere again with his son's desire to serve France, and she was so eloquent that Monsieur Menard gave way. But when peace was signed, Pierre did not come back to Châteaublanc, because his father vowed that there would be no doing anything with him nowadays. So through the interest of one of Mademoiselle's patrons he was found a clerkship in the English branch of a big French commercial house, and Mary did not see him again in Châteaublanc.
But he was her first romance, and the memory of Pierre did not fade quickly, even when Mademoiselle's house was full of girls again and Mary's real school life began.
THE MAIDEN