"Tell me, Miss Peabody, what do you think I should do?" she asked. "It is not worth while for me to say that I care little what becomes of me. Shall I return to Brussels and give us all up to the authorities?"
Eugenia did not answer immediately. When she spoke again she offered no explanation of her own meaning.
"Please wait a while, Madame Carton, if possible, until I can see you again?" she asked. "In case you are not discovered before then I may have a plan to suggest that will help you. But I cannot be sure. Good-by and a good courage."
Then Eugenia marched deliberately back to the place where her old horse was in waiting. She then drove unmolested to the tiny house that was sheltering Nicolete and the three stray children.
But on her way she was repeating to herself a phrase she had learned years before as a girl at the High School:
"Quorum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae," said Cæsar nearly twenty centuries ago. "The bravest of all these are the Belgians."
Eugenia thought the same thing today and for the same reason Cæsar did. "Because they are nearest to the Germans, who dwell across the Rhine, with whom they do continually wage war."