"Alors, Madame, I will tell you! You recollect that German who leaned over the counter for such a long time when you were washing glasses?" "Yes." My lips felt suddenly dry as wood. "Alors, Madame! He said to me, that fellow, '_She_ never speaks!'" "Who did he mean?" "Alors, Madame, he meant you!" (This then, I think to myself, is what happens to one when one is really frightened. The lips turn dry as chips. And all because a German has noticed me. It is absurd.) I force a smile. "Perhaps you imagine this," I said. "No, because he said to me to-day, 'Where is that mädchen who never spoke?'" "What did you say?" "She is deaf," I told him. "She does not hear when anyone speaks to her!" "So that is why you locked me up." "_C'est ça_, Madame. It was my brother who wished it. He is very afraid. And now, Madame, good-night. I must put the little girls to bed." "Well, I think this is ridiculous," I said. "How long am I to stay here?" She shook her head, and began to unfasten little fair-haired Maria's black serge frock, pushing her out of my room as she did so, with the evident intention of locking me in again. But just then someone knocked at the outer door. It was Madame X. who came stealing in, drawing the bolt noiselessly behind her. I looked in her weary face, with its white hair, and beautiful blue eyes, and saw gentleness and sympathy there, and sincerity. She said: "Mon Mari has been talking in the restaurant with a friend of his, a Danish Doctor, a Red Cross Doctor, Madame, you understand, and oh, he is so sorry for you, Madame, and he thinks he can help you to escape! He wants to come up and see you for a moment. I advise you to see him." "Will you bring him up," I said. "Immediately!" The old patronne went on undressing the little girls, getting them hurriedly into bed and telling them to be quiet. They kept shouting out questions to me, and whenever they did so their grandmother would smack them. "Silence. _Les alboches_ will hear you!" But they were terribly naughty little girls. Whenever I spoke they repeated my words in loud, mocking voices. Their sharp little ears told them of my foreign accent, and they plucked at every strange note in my voice, and repeated it loud and shrill, but the grandmother smacked them into silence and pulled the bedclothes up over their faces. Then a gentle tap, and Madame X. and the Danish Doctor came stealing in. Ah! how piercing and pathetic was the look I cast on that tall stranger. I saw a young fair-haired man in grey clothes, with blue eyes, and an honest English look, quiet, kind, sincere, wearing the Red Cross badge on his arm! I looked and looked. Then I told myself he was to be trusted. In English he said, "I heard there was an English lady here who wants to get away from Antwerp?" I interrupted sharply. "Please don't speak English! The Germans are always going up and down the corridor. They may hear!"