“How terribly cut up they must have been,” the girl said, “when they got down to the beach and found that you were missing!”
“I am sure they would be,” he replied. “I expect the rest of the men almost had to hold them back by force.”
“Well, go on. You were hit and made prisoner.”
Will went on with his story till he came to his escape from Verdun.
“What was she like?” the girl asked. “I expect she was very pretty.”
“No, not particularly so. She was a very pleasant-looking girl.”
“I can imagine she seemed very pleasant to you,” the girl laughed; “and, of course, before you got out of the window and climbed to the top of the house you kissed her, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did,” Will said. “Of course she expected to be kissed. I am not at all used to kissing. In fact, I only experienced it once before, and then I was a perfectly passive actor in the affair.”
The girl flushed up rosily.
“You drew that upon yourself, Alice,” her father said. “If you had left him alone he would not have brought up that old affair.”