The door opened, and Mademoiselle Rouannès walked in, pale, composed, but with lips quivering piteously.
'Do not look so anxious,' said her father quickly. 'As I have always told you, there is no mystery about my condition—none at all! My English colleague agrees with me that it's a very nasty wound. Well, you know that already! I'm not as young as I was—that is against me; on the other hand, I'm a very healthy man. You are not to trouble about me one way or the other. Certain things which we are lacking this gentleman will provide out of his stores. The English ambulance service is the best in the world.'
And then the Herr Doktor made his one mistake. 'Nein, nein!' he muttered. And then he felt his heart stand still.
But his new patient had not heard the protest. In a stronger, heartier voice he exclaimed, 'Ah yes, that's right! I wondered when it was coming——'
The door had opened, and Thérèse walked round the corner of the screen, carrying a tray on which were three small glasses, a bottle of Malaga, and some little dry cakes.
'Do you mind stopping a few minutes and having a talk with my father?' Jeanne Rouannès spoke in English. 'It's very'—she hesitated for a word, then found it—'it's very dull for him when I am away all day.'
Eagerly the Herr Doktor sat down.
'And now,' exclaimed the patient, 'we will forget illness and trouble! We will talk of the glorious British Army, and of your ships—that splendid navy which encircles and guards our shores. What would the Little Corporal have said to all this, hein?' Then more seriously he went on, 'I was put out of action almost at once, and that is why I saw nothing of my British confrères. I regret to say that I did see something of the German doctors'—the colour rushed into his face, flamed over his broad forehead, and up to the roots of his white hair.
'Father!' said his daughter imploringly, 'Father, be calm!'
'I am calm—I am absolutely calm! But I must tell our friend of my experience, if only because it will show him—it will show him——'