opposite, bent forward, left hand reposing on his back, his foil
advanced, slightly wiggling and squirming, his watching eye boring
straight into hers--and all of a sudden she would give a spring forward,
and back again; and there she was, with the foil arched over her head as
before. La Hire had been hit, but all that the spectator saw of it was a
something like a thin flash of light in the air, but nothing distinct,
nothing definite.

We kept the drinkables moving, for that would please the Bailly and the
landlord; and old Laxart and D'Arc got to feeling quite comfortable, but
without being what you could call tipsy. They got out the presents which
they had been buying to carry home--humble things and cheap, but they
would be fine there, and welcome. And they gave to Joan a present from
Pere Fronte and one from her mother--the one a little leaden image of the
Holy Virgin, the other half a yard of blue silk ribbon; and she was as
pleased as a child; and touched, too, as one could see plainly enough.
Yes, she kissed those poor things over and over again, as if they had
been something costly and wonderful; and she pinned the Virgin on her
doublet, and sent for her helmet and tied the ribbon on that; first one
way, then another; then a new way, then another new way; and with each
effort perching the helmet on her hand and holding it off this way and
that, and canting her head to one side and then the other, examining the
effect, as a bird does when it has got a new bug. And she said she could
almost wish she was going to the wars again; for then she would fight
with the better courage, as having always with her something which her
mother's touch had blessed.

Old Laxart said he hoped she would go to the wars again, but home first,
for that all the people there were cruel anxious to see her--and so he
went on: