They had brought from Arras all their worldly goods. They took us to the sitting-room and to the bedroom. Much of the furniture was heirlooms. Each piece had its age and history. The carved oak wardrobe was extremely fine; it had belonged to madame's great-grandmother. Chairs, table-covers, pictures--all were treasured. Here was more evidence to expose the fallacy that French family life is decaying. Gentle reader, never believe it. Family history is as sacred in the provinces as natural affection is strong: which is to say much. But the typical French family heirloom is antique plate. This takes the form of china and porcelain embellished with biological and botanical design. Some of it is very crude and ugly, but dear to the possessor. Every French _salle à manger_ has a wall-full; they are in the place of pictures. The dinner was elaborate and delicious. No French _famille_ is so poor that it does not dine well: soup, fish with _salade_, veal with _pommes de terre frites_, fried macaroni with onions, prunes with custard, coffee and cigars. This--except for the cigars, perhaps--was presumably a normal meal. And between each course Madeleine descended the _cave_ and brought forth a fresh bottle of _cidre_. And Madeleine's glass was filled by her parent, with a charming absence of discrimination, as often as ours--or as her mother's. The colour mounted in her cheeks; but she did not talk drivel. To generous draughts of wine and _cidre_ had she been accustomed from her youth up. And the youngest French child will always get as much as Madeleine to drink at table. So the French are not drunkards. After lunch came two visitors to talk. They were sisters, friends of Madeleine. For two years and a half they had been prisoners in a French town held by the Germans, near Albert, and had been liberated only a month before by the German evacuation. They told pitiful tales of German ill-usage, though not of a physiological nature. But constantly the Boches demanded food and never paid, so that they themselves went hungry daily. Also, they worked for Germans under compulsion, and never were paid; and worked very hard. The German soldiers they described as not unkind, though discourteous, but the officers were invariably brutal. _Maintenant vous êtes chez nous_ was the German officers' formula, with its implied threat of violation; which was never executed, however. We rose to go, and made to pay. This was smiled at indulgently. "_Au revoir, messieurs! Bonne chance!_" cried _le père_. "_Quand vous voudrez_," said Madame. "_Quand vous voudrez_," echoed Madeleine. So we went--like Christian--on our way rejoicing. CHAPTER II THÉRÈSE