gives one a chance to see how really handsome it is.

A great many of the most fashionable hotels are turned to hospitals,
and everywhere, especially along the Champs-Elysées, the flags of
the Red Cross float over once gay resorts, while big white bunting
signs extend across almost every other façade, carrying the name
and number of a hospital.

Every sort of business is running short-handed, and no big office or
bank is open between the hours of noon and two o'clock.

I saw no one--there was no one to see. I finished the little business I
had to do and then I went back to the station and sat on the terrace of
the café opposite, and, for an hour, I watched the soldiers going in at
one gate, and the public--Indian file--presenting its papers at another.
No carriages can enter the courtyard. No one can carry anything but
hand luggage, and porters are not allowed to pass the gates, so one
had to carry one's bundles one's self across the wide, paved court.
However, it is less trying to do this than it was in other days, as one
runs no risk from flying motor-cabs.

We did not leave Paris until six--it was already dark--and there were
few lights along the road. The Germans would love to destroy this
road, which is on the direct line to the front, but I cannot imagine a
bomb from an aeroplane reaching it at night, except by accident.

By the way, the attitude of the public towards these war airships is
queer. It seems a great deal more curiosity than fear. I had heard this
stated, and I had a chance to see it exemplified. Just as Amélie and I
were stumbling in the dusk over the rough pavement of the court, we