"Who would ever have told me ...?" he stammered.
"I, Philippe ... I was sure of you. We have not to do with theories, but with implacable facts. These are realities, to-day.... The enemy is treading the bit of earth where you were born, where you played as a child. The enemy is forcing his way into France. Defend her, Philippe...."
He clenched his fists around his rifle and she saw that his eyes were full of tears.
He murmured, quivering with inward rebellion:
"Our sons will refuse ... I shall teach them to refuse.... What I cannot do, what I have not the courage to do they shall do."
"Perhaps, but what does the future matter!" she said, eagerly. "What does to-morrow's duty matter! Our duty, yours and mine, is the duty of to-day."
A voice whispered:
"They're coming near, captain.... They're coming near...."
Another voice, beside Philippe, the voice of one of the women tending the wounded man, moaned: