table in the servants' hall was literally covered with glasses
containing jam and jelly of every description, awaiting their paper
lids. Nini said there were over five hundred--to me it seemed
thousands, and I was heartily glad of a lull before the hospital should
open. And I remember distinctly that the last thing I prepared was some
thirty quarts of black currant brandy; that is to say, I had poured the
raw alcohol on to the fruit and set the jars aside to await completion
six months later! Shortly afterwards I received word by a roundabout
route from Soissons that I might expect my trained nurses and supplies
at any moment. In the meantime I was without word from H. since that
eventful meeting a week before.

Saturday, the fifteenth of August, was as little like a religious fete
day as one can imagine. At an early hour the winnowing machine rumbled
up the road to the square beside the chateau. Under the circumstances
each one must take his turn at getting in his wheat and oats, and there
was no choice of day or hour. Besides, the village had already been
called on to furnish grain and fodder for the army, and the harvest must
be measured and declared at once. This only half concerned me, for my
hay was already in the lofts before the war began, and two elderly men
who had applied for work as bunchers, had been engaged for the last week
in August.

After service at Charly, I walked across to the post office. The post
mistress and telegraph operator, a delightful provincial maiden lady,
always welcomes me most cordially, and at present I fancied she might
have some news that had not yet reached Villiers. (Mind you, since the
second of August we had had but two newspapers, and those obtained with
what difficulty!) The _bureau_ now belonged to the army, and for a
fortnight Mademoiselle Maupoix and her two young girl assistants had