The young girl burst out laughing and went on making fun of him.
“You can’t deny it! These colonials can shoot splendidly—You beat them in a cotillion! But in war! Hardly!”
“I don’t understand you—”
“Oh, yes you do! You understand me perfectly. M. Guibert here has beaten you! We applaud him because, as you know, he is our hero. Now you are anything but a hero. When your uniform gets wet you talk about it for a week! Besides, when one really wants to fight, one doesn’t go into the cavalry!”
Now for a man to extricate himself wittily from the embarrassment caused by a pretty woman’s jokes is no easy matter, and Lieutenant de Marthenay was far from being witty. He attacked Marcel Guibert once more.
“The ladies are your protection, sir!”
But Isabelle Orlandi did not let him go. It was she who answered:
“Oh! he needs no protection to advance him.”
Madame Dulaurens intervened at last:
“Come, Isabelle, you are not considerate.”