"Not as if that prevented things" the Duchesse announced reflectively--"Well, well--Some of my _blessés_ show just your symptoms, Nicholas, and I discover almost immediately it is because they are in love--with the brain--with the imagination you must understand--that is the only dangerous kind--. When it is with a pretty face alone--a good dose and a new book helps greatly." "There would be no use in my being in love, Duchesse--" "It would depend upon the woman--you want sympathy and a guiding hand--_Va!_--" Sympathy and a guiding hand! "I liked ruling and leading when I was a man--" "----We all have our ups and downs--I like my own bed--but last night an extra batch of _blessés_ came in--and I had to give it up to one whose back was a mass of festers--he would have lain on the floor else--. What will you--_hein?_--We have to learn to accommodate ourselves to conditions, my son." Suddenly the picture of this noble woman's courage came to me vividly, her unvarying resourcefulness--her common sense--her sympathy with humanity--her cheerfulness--I never heard her complain or repine, even when fate took her only son at Verdun--Such as these are the glory of France--and Coralie and Odette and Alice seemed to melt into nothingness--. "The war will be finished this autumn--" she told me presently--"and then our difficult time will begin--. Quarrels for all the world--Not good fighting--But you will live to see a Renaissance, Nicholas--and so prepare for it." "What can I do, dear friend--If you knew how much I want to do something!" "Your first duty is to get well.--Have yourself patched together--finished so to speak, and then marry and found a family to take the place of all who have perished. It was good taste when I was young not to have too many--but now!--France wants children--and England too. There is a duty for you, Nicholas!" I kissed her hand--. "If I could find a woman like you!" I cried--"indeed then I would worship her--." "So--so--! There are hundreds such as I--when I was young I lived as youth lives--You must not be too critical, Nicholas." She was called away then, back to one of the wards, and I hobbled down the beautiful staircases by myself--the lift was not working. The descent was painful and I felt hot and tired when I reached the ground floor, it was quite dusk then, and the one light had not yet been lit. A slight wisp of a figure passed along the end of the corridor. I could not see plainly, but I could have sworn it was Miss Sharp--I called her name--but no one answered me so I went on out,--the servant, aged ninety, now joining me, he assisted me into my one horse Victoria beyond the concierge's lodge.