"Safety?" she repeated sadly. "Could it include my brother I would ask Heaven for no other blessing."
I begged, I pleaded, I argued, but to all she answered, "Who will save him if I am absent?"
I was obliged to wait and hope.
Now came the war, when disaster followed disaster until the Germans had completed the investment of Paris: then she begged me to go.
"Your country needs you: join the army of the Loire and do what you can to help it. You have been with us too long: already it would be difficult to make people believe that you do not belong to us. But if you serve suspicion will be averted. For my sake, go!"
"For your sake I stay."
"You are mistaken: if I need your protection you will be in a better position to give it by going than by staying."
"If you need my protection, will you let me give it?"
"I will."
"The protection of my name, the protection of a husband?"