TRAGIC COINCIDENCE, EPARGES.
January, 1916.
I have spent several days at Berne on vacation. Some hours before my departure I went into a shop to buy a cold luncheon to take on the train.
Near the shop-door two elderly women were talking in a low voice. At the moment I went out, passing close to them, I overheard the word "Eparges." I stopped short.
"Pardon, madame, well have you said 'Eparges'—I come from there and I return! In two days I shall be there and it startled me to hear the name pronounced so far from that spot that I will never forget it!
"Perhaps you know someone there? Tell me, I will go and see him for you——"
"My son, Charles, is at Eparges—his name is Charles Dubois. He is in the 9th Engineers——"
"Under orders from Captain Grenet, my friend; he is a sapper-miner——"
"Yes, Charles is a corporal in his company."
"Upon my arrival at Eparges, I promise you, madame, that I will find your son. He will be very happy when I tell him that I saw his mother at the precise moment she was thinking of him——"