In one of the rare moments when they were alone together, Rémy said something which gave her more pleasure to hear than anything that had ever been told her before. He told her that but for her he did not think he could possibly endure it, that only her presence there, so brave and strong, the one thing left in the world, gave him strength to go on.
He had come up to her room, a small tower room she had withdrawn to when the Germans arrived. It was late in the evening, the room was almost dark, and she had lighted two candles on the little table, by the window, where she was having bread and soup on a tray. He had had scarcely anything to eat all day, and she made him share the soup and the bread. They laughed because he was really hungry. Cut off from the world, completely alone together in the most intense isolation, having no one, nothing, left, either of them, but each the other, in a world terrible beyond belief, they laughed together because he was so absurdly hungry.
They knew nothing but what the Germans told them of things that were happening in the world.
How could they believe such things? They did not believe, and yet to hear them said!
Fifteen days passed, that they could not have lived through if there had not been so much for them to do in every moment, and if they had not had each of them the comfort and support of the other's presence. Fifteen days passed, of helplessness and dread, almost despair.
Then, in one day, something was changed for the Germans; there was no knowing what it was; their mood took on a new ugliness.
It was that day that some of the men hanged Claire's St. Bernard puppy. They hanged him on the terrace from the branch of the big chestnut tree and left him there. Claire came up through the park from the village and found him. They never knew why the men had done it; it seemed so small and useless a thing to have done.
For two days she and Rémy were kept as prisoners, allowed to leave their rooms only attended by a soldier, and not to go to the village at all. There seemed to be a great confusion and commotion in the village and in the castle, but no explanation was given them.
Then, in one night, the Germans were gone.
Village and castle were left empty for scarcely a morning, and then came French troops, in hot pursuit from the victory of the Marne.