right to choose their arm of the service, subject to conditions.--






10

Argoval





THE twilight of evening was coming near from the direction of the
country, and a gentle breeze, soft as a whisper, came with it.

In the houses alongside this rural way--a main road, garbed for a
few paces like a main street--the rooms whose pallid windows no
longer fed them with the limpidity of space found their own light
from lamps and candles, so that the evening left them and went
outside, and one saw light and darkness gradually changing places.

On the edge of the village, towards the fields, some unladen
soldiers were wandering, facing the breeze. We were ending the day
in peace, and enjoying that idle ease whose happiness one only
realizes when one is really weary. It was fine weather, we were at
the beginning of rest, and dreaming about it. Evening seemed to make
our faces bigger before it darkened them, and they shone with the