One sultry August afternoon Barbara went again to see Eugenia. This time she went alone.

According to his usual custom Bibo met her at the end of the car line with his ancient horse. Owing to his lameness perhaps, he was head coachman to Eugenia's establishment, which Barbara still insisted upon calling "L'Hotel des Enfants."

Bibo was looking extremely well. He had on long trousers of blue cotton and a blue cotton smock with a round collar. He had lost the frightened, starved look which Barbara remembered seeing on the evening of his rescue. The boy's face was round, there was a dimple in one corner of his brown cheek. His eyes were serene save for his sense of responsibility as Barbara's escort.

It is true that Bibo's mother was still[Pg 132] held a prisoner in Brussels because of an act of disrespect to a German officer. But children's memories do not harass them so long as they are happy.

"How are things going, Bibo?" Barbara asked in French, as soon as she was seated beside her driver. Fortunately, French was the language of Eugenia's Belgium family rather than Flemish.

Bibo first flapped his reins and then nodded enthusiastically. Words at the moment appeared to fail him, although he was usually voluble.

"Then Gene is well?" Barbara continued. For after many difficulties Eugenia had acquired this informal title. In the beginning the children had struggled nobly with her name, but Miss Peabody was too much for them. Then "Miss Eugenia" was equally difficult for little Belgian tongues, so it became Madame Gene. Later, since Eugenia did not enjoy being called Madame, nor was she more fond of Mademoiselle, her name attained its simplest form among the younger children.

[Pg 133]

But Eugenia was Bibo's altar saint and he was not inclined to take liberties. Saint Gene she had been to him in truth!

"She is well," he answered briefly. Then he allowed his round eyes to leave his horse and turn ecstatically toward Barbara.

"In a few days my mother is to be with us. She wrote that she need stay no longer in prison and that she wished to see me, but alas, there was no place for us to go! Our home near Louvain was burned and my father—" The tones of the boy's voice expressed his uncertainty of his father's fate. "But my friend has written that my mother may come to our home; she will help us look after the other children. All will be well!"

Bibo's tone was so grown-up and he was so evidently quoting Eugenia that his companion smiled. But the smile was because Bibo could not possibly understand how one could cry over good news. How big was Eugenia's house and her sympathy these days? Certainly she seemed to wish it to include all who needed her help.

[Pg 134]

"And Monsieur Bebé?" Barbara next queried. "Does he appear more cheerful since I left him with you a week ago?"

The boy hesitated a little. "He laughed twice this morning and he sits all day in the sun and smiles now and then when Nicolete is beside him. But no one can be cheerful and blind."

This was spoken with conviction. Of his own affliction Bibo seldom thought, but indeed his lameness troubled him very little now. He could run and walk almost as well as the other boys. It had been hard at first, for until the day when their house had burned and they had been forced to escape, he had been exactly like other boys. But he had been stupid then and fallen. There had been no time to heal the hurt in his leg, so Bibo must hobble as best he might through an indifferent world.

But Barbara seemed extraordinarily well pleased by her companion's information. Poor Monsieur Bebé had been so far from smiling even once during his weeks in the prison hospital. And Barbara felt that she[Pg 135] could claim some of the credit along with Eugenia for his release and better fortune.

Soon after her visit to the prison she had secured a prominent surgeon to go and look at the young Frenchman's eyes. The man could offer him little comfort. There was every chance that Monsieur Bebé, whose name was Reney, must continue blind. A little hope he might have, but hope was not encouragement.

In the depression that followed this announcement Barbara did her best to help the boy. But it was plain to his fellow prisoners and to the prison officers that the news had broken his health and spirit. He had no wish to live. He would not eat and after a time made no effort to get out of bed. He would lie all day without speaking, but rarely uttering a complaint.

Everybody was sorry for him, the big German nurse, the German guards, even the commandant of the prison. It was one thing to kill an enemy in the passion of battle, but another to see a boy, who had done one no personal harm, slowly passing away in darkness.

[Pg 136]

So when Barbara came to the German commandant with her plea for his prisoner's parole, he was willing to listen to her.

"What possible harm could be done if Monsieur Bebé, in reality Albert Reney, be transferred to Eugenia's home in the woods? She had offered the French boy shelter and care. He would make no effort to escape, but even if he should, a blind man could never again fight for his country. Moreover, Germany was arranging with the Allies for an exchange of blind prisoners. It was possible that Monsieur Reney might later on be sent home."

Eugenia was waiting this time near the place where Barbara was compelled to descend from Bibo's wagon. She had only one of her children with her, which was unusual, since she ordinarily went about with five or six. But Jan and Bibo were her two shadows. They were marked contrasts, since Bibo was so plainly a little son of the Belgian soil, the child and grandchild of farmers. Jan came of the men and women who have lived among pictures and[Pg 137] books and helped make the history of his now tragic land.

The boy Jan was so instinctively a gentleman that, although he was not ten years old, he immediately upon Barbara's arrival slipped behind the two friends. For his happiness' sake he wished to keep his eyes fastened upon his Gene, but he must not be close enough to overhear conversation that would not be intended for him.

Eugenia took Barbara's face between her beautiful, firm hands and gazed at her closely. Althoug............