I don’t know; I thought it was friendship. And that was so wonderful to me that I never dreamed any other miracle possible! _Allons_, my Djack. Come and instruct me quickly, because my desire for further knowledge is very ardent. The news? _Cher ami_, there is little. Always the far thunder beyond Nivelle in ruins; sometimes a battle-plane high in the blue; a convoy of your beloved mules arriving from the coast; nothing more exciting. Monsieur Smeet and Monsieur Glenn inquire always concerning you. They are brave and kind; their odd jests amuse me. My father caught a tench in the Lesse this morning. My gardener, Karl, collected many unpleasant creatures while hoeing our potatoes. Poor lad, he seems unhealthy. I am glad I could offer him employment. My Djack, there could not possibly be any mistake about him, could there? His papers are en règle. He is what he pretends, a Belgian student from Ypres in distress and ill health, is he not? But how can you answer me, you who lie there all alone in a hospital at Nice? Also, I am ashamed of myself for doubting the unfortunate young man. I am too happy to doubt anybody, perhaps. And so good night, my Djack. Sleep sweetly, guarded by powerful angels. Thy devoted, MARYETTE. She had been writing in the deserted café. Now she took a candle and went slowly upstairs. On the white plaster wall of her bedroom was a Death’s Head moth. The girl, startled for an instant, stood still; an unfeigned shiver of displeasure passed over her. Not that the Death’s Head was an unfamiliar or terrifying sight to her; in late summer she usually saw one or two which had flown through some lighted window. But it was the amorous history of this creature which the student Karl had related that now repelled her. This night creature with the skull on its neck, once scarcely noticed, had now become a trifle repulsive. She went nearer, lifting the lighted candle. The thing crouched there with slanted wings. It was newly hatched, its sleek body still wet with the humors of incubation--wet as a soaked mouse. Its abdomen, too, seemed enormous, all swelled and distended with unfertilized eggs. No, there could be no question concerning the sex of the thing; this was a female, and her tumefied body was almost bursting with eggs. In startling design the yellow skull stood out; the ribs of the skeleton. Two tiny, fiery eyes glimmered at the base of the antennæ--two minute jewelled sparks of glowing, lambent fire. They seemed to be watching her, maliciously askance. The very horrid part of it was that, if touched, the creature would cry out. The girl knew this, hesitated, looked at the open window through which it must have crawled, and sat down on her bed to consider the situation.