"Please! I did not wish to be paid for aiding you——"
"But it is a matter of business!"
"I thought—I am happy in being permitted to return a little of your kindness to me—I do not want anything from you——"
"Kindness!"
"You have let me find a refuge with you——"
"Dear child, I offer you employment until something more suitable offers. Didn't you understand?"
"Yes, but I did not expect or wish you to pay me—except with friendship. It is different between us and others, is it not?—I mean you are my friend.... I could not take money from you.... Let it be only friendship between us. Will you? I have enough to last until I can find employment. Only let me be with you. That is quite enough for me, Warner."
Halkett, who had been gazing fixedly through his glasses, remarked that the column across the river had now passed.
It was true; the wall of dust still obscured the blue foothills of the Vosges, but the last fantassin had trotted beyond their view and the last military wagon had rolled out of sight.
Halkett descended from the ladder and went through the house and down the road in the direction of the schoolhouse, a smart, well-groomed, well-set-up figure in his light-colored service uniform and cap.