At noon Sister Félicité dismissed the school; and the little girls formed in line very demurely and filed off to the kitchen.
"What a delicious odor!" exclaimed Halkett, nose in the air.
Sister Félicité sniffed the soup.
"We do our best," she said. "The poor little things fatten here, God be praised." And, to Warner, in her vigorous, alert manner: "What is all this talk concerning war? The children prattle about it. They must have heard such gossip among the quarry people."
Warner said:
"It begins to look rather serious, Sister."
"Is it Germany again?"
"I fear so."
Sister Félicité's pink cheeks flushed:
"Is it the noisy boaster who rules those Germans who would bring the sword upon us again? Is there not enough of barbaric glory in his Empire for him and his that he should invade the civilized world to seek for more? It is a vile thing for any man, be he ruler or subject, to add one featherweight to the crushing burden of the world's misery!"