on her feet, ministering to a sex of which she knew almost nothing.
She had the nostalgia of the Parisian garret. She must go home to
her neglected habits. The war was waging. She delayed, from a
sense of duty. But at last her habits were irresistible. Officers had
said lightly that there was no danger, that the Germans could not
possibly reach that small town. Nevertheless, the train that the
spinster-sempstress took was the last train to leave. And as the
spinster-sempstress departed by the train, so the sister-in-law
departed in a pony-cart, with a son and a grandmother in the pony-
cart, together with such goods as the cart would hold; and, through
staggering adventures, reached safety at Troyes.

"And how did you yourself get on?" I asked the spinster-sempstress.

She answered:

"It was terrible. Ordinarily it is a journey of three or four hours. But
that time it lasted three days and two nights. The train was crammed
with refugees and with wounded. One was obliged to stand up. One
could not move."

"But where did you sleep?"

"I did not sleep. Do I not tell you one was obliged to stand up? I
stood up all the first night. The floor was thirty centimetres deep in
filth. The second night one had settled down somewhat. I could sit."

"But about eating?"

"I had a little food that I brought with me."