"Let them come back! No indeed, my good woman; they'd have to pass over our bodies first!"
We approve of what he says, and succeed in calming him down.
The mistress, an optimist, declares in her country accent—
"Shall I tell you what I think?"
"Certainly."
"Well, then, some fine day they will clear off without any one suspecting it."
"Mon Dieu, for my part, I shouldn't object if——"
Our existence is now as well regulated as that of any Government official: four days in the trenches, four days at Bucy, four days in the trenches, and so on.
How glad we are to get back to the house and our old habits!
Yes, we keep to these habits, though they are far different from those we followed in the bygone days of peace. It may be that we do so because we know them to be so fragile and uncertain, like ourselves, and at the mercy of the least of the hazards of war.