Ben was talking in his sleep. He was courting that captain again. I wished he were going into the lioness’ den instead of me. —3— Well, I went shopping in the afternoon with Madame Ada Gedouin, and I must say that that woman knew how to spend money. She didn’t curb her tastes and fancies at all, and unless she got darned big checks from New York, the Captain was right.... She was a gay companion, though. Men turned around to look at her and I’ll bet more than one of them envied me. And me nothing but a poor enlisted man! Why, it was almost a crime for a gink like me to promenade down the boulevards with a woman that was as pretty and richly dressed as the Madame! I wanted to run every time we passed an M.P. Apparently business went on here in spite of the war. It was only at night that you could see the difference, for then there were no lights and the houses were all boarded up and shuttered to prevent any light from escaping. In the daytime the shops were open and doing a lively business, too, with all those Americans there ready and willing to buy this and that to send home to the “little woman.” This afternoon, after we finished our tour of the stores, I felt it my duty to take my companion somewhere to eat and when I suggested it, she admitted that she was about famished. “You’re a dear sweet boy,” she told me. “And I’ll let you take me to Cuvier’s.” Not knowing where this guy Cuvier tended bar, I had to ask for directions, which she gave, with that silvery little laugh, much as if I were some child whose innocence and ignorance were in inverse proportion to its age. Well, Cuvier’s proved to be something more or less special, but the major-domo, or whatever he was, very quickly found a secluded table for us and I extended myself in trying to please milady’s palate. And everything I’d do or say, she’d come out with that “dear sweet boy” stuff and I felt like two cents. Enough of anything like that is too much to begin with. Before the repast was finished we had consumed several shallow glasses of very stimulating wine, and the Madame had reached the point where she punctuated her flatteries by caresses and chummy little pats and finger kisses. If I hadn’t had the wine, I’d have felt uncomfortable. Anyway, as we were coming out of the place, I spied a familiar figure about ten yards away and promptly had shivers of apprehension—for the sight of Jay-Jay didn’t make me feel very calm, even after the other night.