I questioned the boys as to their military duties. Both were under-officers in an infantry regiment--bound to join their barracks within twenty-four hours after the call to arms. We did not linger over our coffee. Each one seemed anxious to go about his affairs. I left the Gautron boys at the comer of their street, each carrying his army shoes under his arm. "To be greased--in case of accident," they laughingly explained. That was the last time I ever saw them. They fell "on the Field of Honour" both the same day, and hardly a month later. But to return to my affairs. A trifle upset by what Mr. Mortier had told me, I hurried to the nearest telephone station and asked for Villiers. When after what seemed an interminable time I got the connection, I explained to H. what had happened. "For Heaven's sake leave politics alone and take the five o'clock train home! We need you to make a second fourth at bridge." H.'s lightheartedness somewhat reassured me, though for prudence's sake I went to my bank and asked to withdraw my entire account. "Why, Madame Huard," said the clerk in surprise, "you mean to say you are frightened?" I explained what I had heard in the morning. "_Pensez-vous? Non!_ We would be the first to be notified. We were ever so much closer to war two years ago--at Agadir! There is no cause for alarm." He almost persuaded me, but after hesitating a moment I decided to abide by my original intentions. "I can always put my money back in a week or so if all blows over and I find I don't need it," I argued. "Certainly, Madame--as you will." And the twenty-eighth of July the _Societe Generale_ gave me all the gold I requested. As the five o'clock express hurried me back home I began to understand the gravity of the situation--for the "queer looking soldiers" were nearer together all along the railway line, and it dawned on me that theirs was a very serious mission--namely, that of safeguarding the steel artery which leads from Paris to the eastern frontier. At Charly, our station, I was much surprised to see three French officers in full uniform get off the train and step into the taxi-autobus which deposits its travelers at the only hotel in the vicinity. At the chateau my story failed to make an impression. The men pooh-poohed the idea of war, and returned to the evening papers and the _proces Caillaux_, which was the most exciting question of the moment. In the pantry the news was greeted with hilarity, and coachman and gardener declared that they would shoulder their spades and _faire la guerre en sabots_.