"Yes, that was very surprising," said Madame Ribot. "But remember I got the thousand francs! Isn't that the proof of the pudding from an art dealer. I'll set up a studio in Paris, a tiny one in a garret, and get my own meals--thrifty me! And I'll be away from home, mother, as much as if I were nursing--I mean, I'll be independent, as I ought to be." She went on talking about her plans, unconscious that Henriette and even her mother were slightly inattentive. CHAPTER VII A FULL-FACE PORTRAIT But the war did come. It came, perhaps, to teach the foolish people of a beautiful world how beautiful it was and how foolish they were. Helen did not have to wait on the note from M. Vailliant to know that there would be no exhibition. The war had killed her little ambition, along with millions of others. Widespread human tragedy enveloped the personal thought. Some other person in some other age seemed to have done those charcoals, which still lay stacked on the corner table in the sitting-room. Her thoughts went forth with the able-bodied villagers who had left their harvests to fight for France. Their going was, as yet, Mervaux's only direct contact with the war. The sky remained the same; the sunshine was equally glorious; the shade equally pleasant at mid-day; and Jacqueline was making equally good omelets. What were the Ribots to do? The girls thought that they ought to try to help France. Everybody ought when France was about to fight for her life. But Madame Ribot decided to the contrary. She was irritated with the war and she meant that it should trouble her as little as possible. "But not to be in Paris in a time like this!" protested Henriette. "How lucky to be out of Paris!" said Madame Ribot. "All the trains full of soldiers, and there will be trouble about passes, General Rousseau says." She placed great reliance on the General. He said that there was no danger. This time the tables would be turned on the Prussians. She, too, believed in a French victory. It was not as it had been in '70. The French were ready. Where could the war disturb her as little as at Mervaux, in the lap of the hills a mile away from the main road? "Then I'll go, mother," said Helen. The objections to Henriette's going to Paris could not apply to her. "No, we shall all stay here," Madame Ribot replied. "But I have my thousand francs," said Helen. "I'll run up for only two or three days." "No. You would not go when I thought it best," said Madame Ribot pettishly. "Now when I need you, you want to go. You were always very contrary." "Oh--I--forgive me! I did not know that you thought of it in that way--that you needed me." "We must all be together. I should worry about you." "Of course you would! I didn't think of that. Oh, mother!"