"I could not make you understand how different...." (No, she would not
tell him how they had lived at Bar. She was ashamed.) But as she was
answering the servant gave him a message and he was called away. When he
returned he said: "The Commandant Dormans is showing himself
very anxious."

The Jew laughed and said: "He wants to see these ladies this evening?"

"No, he spares them that, knowing of their journey. He sends a message
by the Capitaine Chatel to tell us that the _D.S.A._ gives a dance
to-morrow night. The personal invitation will be sent by messenger in
the morning. You dance, mademoiselle?"

"There is a dance, and we are invited? Yes, yes, I dance! You asked if I
was happy now that I am here. To us this might be Babylon, after
the desert!"

"Babylon, the wicked city?"

"The gay, the light, beribboned city! What is the 'D.S.A.'?"

"A power which governs our actions. We are but the C.R.A.... the
regulating control. But they are the Direction. 'Direction Service
Automobile.' They draw up all traffic rules for the Army, dispose of
cars, withdraw them. On them you depend and I depend. But they are
well-disposed towards you."

"And the Commandant Dormans is the head?"

"The head of all transport. He is a great man. Very peculiar."