Sleep was long in coming that night. After much talking we were still at a loss what to think. Were the Germans really at our gates? "I cannot believe it," groaned Geneviève; "it is a collapse; it is the end of all things." "If we are invaded, what shall we do?" The next day we renewed the discussion. "If the Prussians come, we have but to wait for them with a bold face," said Geneviève and Colette. Mme. Valaine hesitated. "Mother," exclaimed Yvonne and Antoinette, "we cannot stay here. Think of the risks we run." "What shame," retorted Colette, "to run away like a troop of rabbits! I had never thought you were such cowards!" The others repeated with one accord: "And if mother was taken as a hostage? The Germans are capable of anything; they have already committed many atrocities." Our perplexity was great. About ten o'clock there dropped from the sky three new surgeons, and, pressing on them a cup of coffee, we renewed our anxious questions. They told us plainly that the Germans were gaining ground, and that we were sure to see them. "What do you advise us to do?" cried my mother-in-law. "Madam," Dr. Seseman declared--he was bearded, jovial, and fatherly--"Madam, if you were relations of mine, I should urge your departure." "Well, the die is cast, we shall go," declared Mme. Valaine. "Yes," I said, "but the house is not in order." A few days ago, as I went to Mme. Lantois to buy some eggs, the farmer's wife told me with great satisfaction: "I feel quieter now, my house is in order." It was as much as to say that all she set store by had disappeared; the family had hidden, buried, and walled up whatever they had been able to hide, bury, and wall up. Our guests of yesterday's dinner had told us that the owners of a northern farm had unpaved a yard, dug a huge hole, huddled in pieces of furniture and pictures, and then filled up and repaved it. This farm could await the invaders: it was in order. But our house was not in order--that was obvious enough. "You have here," said our visitors, "a beautiful Empire clock. It would be a great pity to have it sent to Germany." "And this lovely console table--and those vases...." A few minutes after the two officers, with whom we were gravely discussing, asked: "Where is our friend Laison?" "In the garden with Colette, digging holes...." "Is he? then we will too." And soon after, our visitors, in their shirt-sleeves, seemed to strive who would dig hardest; and we, just as busy, ran in all directions, and brought in objects of every kind.