I proceeded to the house and entered as quietly as possible, found my blouse and extracted my cigarettes, then continued upstairs to get the Captain’s. I had no idea which room he had used and while I stood silently debating with myself at the top of the stairs, I became conscious of a very rapid and strange dialogue going on somewhere near at hand. My ears caught words that were unmistakably German and I distinguished one of the voices by its silvery tinkle. I tried to place the sounds, but could not and, fearing to make a noise if I tried to get nearer, I satisfied myself by attempting to catch the content of their conversation. I caught such words as “papers,” “numbers,” “army corps,” “aviation” and “money,” but the rest was an indistinguishable blur of sounds. Then I heard what sounded like someone moving and I ducked quickly into the first door I came to. I held my breath and listened again. The voices were even plainer here and I guessed that they must be in the very next room to the one I was in. I heard the Madame tell her companion that “the money will be safe in the apartment” and then something about “a chaplain on Tuesday.” Their voices became inaudible then. A motor started up somewhere outside and I decided that the best thing I could do was take advantage of the noise to make my exit. I got downstairs and out of the house without anyone seeing me, and when I appeared again at Marie’s side, with a cigarette hanging from the corner of my mouth, the Captain piped up to ask if I had brought his smokes. “How the devil did I know where your clothes were!” I retorted. “You’ll have to get along with one of my cheap fags.” He came up to get one and, although he continued the joke of bawling me out, I knew that he understood the slight wink that I gave him. He lit his cigarette from mine and observed to Marie, “Don’t ever have anything to do with these enlisted men, Mam’selle.... If this fellow didn’t have a perfectly marvelous sister I wouldn’t even smoke one of his cigarettes.” With which he returned to his place near the diving board to continue his engaging chatter with the others, and a moment later the Madame reappeared, with cigarettes, matches, and a huge cocktail shaker, the top of which contained four small cups which were promptly appropriated. “I thought something like this would help the gayety of nations,” she remarked cheerily, as the Captain took the shaker and began a Pipes-of-Pan dance with it. When he came back to her, he observed lightly, “The perfect hostess always does the right thing at the right moment!... If this continues, I shall fall under the spell and propose to you myself!” “Ou la la!” cried the Madame. “After all these years of yearning, I am to be rewarded?” She laughed with him as she filled his cup. “May I never feel worse!” offered the Captain, raising the cup to his lips. “Which might mean either of two very different things,” laughed his companion. “Don’t commit yourself, even in jest.”