The young fellow looked so pleased that even Eugenia, who was far less sentimental than Barbara, felt touched. It might be ridiculous to spend one’s time tending a garden when there was so much more important work to be done, but then the French are an artistic and a sentimental people. One had read of the soldiers in the trenches planting gardens in their spare hours without really believing it until now.
But Eugenia was impatient to be gone. The other three girls expected to return home immediately, but she wished first to pay a short visit to the field hospital back of the trenches to inquire about one of her patients.
However, when once they were safe upon the face of the earth again, both girls uttered exclamations of surprise. But neither of them showed the least desire to move away. For there just ahead of them was a stretch of level green country with about fifty soldiers forming a circle within it. They were not lounging or talking, but were alert and interested. They were watching something or someone who must be in the center of the circle.
Barbara and Eugenia discovered that Nona and Mildred had joined the group. They were equally absorbed. Indeed, when the two girls joined them, Barbara had to stand on tiptoe to find out what was going on. Neither of her friends paid the slightest attention to her. Indeed, it was only through the kindness of a soldier who moved aside to make room for her and Eugenia that they were able to see what was taking place.
There in the middle of the green space was such an entrancing figure that Barbara fairly gasped with surprise and pleasure. Eugenia frowned with a mixture of disapproval and interest.
A girl of about fifteen or sixteen was dancing for the entertainment of the soldiers. She was slender, with straight black hair, loose to her shoulders. On her head was a scarlet cap and she wore a thin blouse and a short skirt the color of her cap. As she whirled about in her dance now and then she would snatch the cap from her head. Then the girls could see that she seemed to bend and sway almost without effort. Her eyes were large and dark and her lips a bright red, yet in spite of the exercise of the dance her cheeks remained pale.
“She is like a poppy dancing in the wind, isn’t she, Eugenia?” Barbara whispered admiringly.
Eugenia looked severe. “I must say I cannot approve of such an exhibition,” she commented.
For once Barbara agreed. “I don’t approve either, but the girl is entrancing. I wonder who she is and what her name can be? The soldiers behave as if she had danced for them before.”
At this moment Barbara heard a voice at her elbow and turning discovered the young Frenchman who had presented them the bunch of flowers.