However, it was nearly noon before Eugenia made the discovery that the entire French army in the vicinity had retreated, leaving all the country nearby in the hands of the Germans. Only then did she appreciate the difficulty of concealing a young French officer in her home, who would doubtless be taken prisoner if his presence and his identity were discovered. Her information came about in this fashion. For two hours Eugenia worked with her patient, washing his wounds and even managing to extract a bullet which had lodged near the surface. Also she bathed his face and poured brandy between his haggard lips until he opened his eyes, only to close them again in utter exhaustion. Finally, when she could do nothing more, Eugenia walked to her front door to[215] get some fresh air. She meant in a few moments to go to the Chateau d’Amélie and send old Fran?ois to the nearest village for a doctor. So far it simply had not occurred to her that Fran?ois and his mistress might have deserted the chateau for the same reason that had compelled the removal of the field hospital.
Outside, like a tired sentinel, Eugenia found Duke asleep in the front yard. Then while hesitating to wake him, even to keep guard over his master, she became vaguely conscious that soldiers were marching past. The next instant she realized that their uniforms were German and not French and that they wore the eagle triumphant on their shining helmets.
They were passing close to the little “House with the Blue Front Door,” so that Eugenia wondered why no one stopped to investigate it. Then she remembered that Barbara had hung the Red Cross emblem outside and that the soldiers were treating it with extraordinary respect.
Would they continue to do this after discovering that the only person beside herself[216] under the protection of the Red Cross flag was an enemy’s officer?
Eugenia was convinced otherwise. Captain Castaigne would be promptly taken prisoner so soon as she told of his whereabouts and sent to a hospital within the German lines. And to be moved at the present time would probably mean the young officer’s death.
Calling Duke inside, Eugenia closed and bolted the blue front door. Then she considered whether she could manage to keep the young Frenchman concealed and yet take the proper care of him. It would be impossible to expect the assistance of a physician, for the nearest village would assuredly be occupied by the Germans and to demand a doctor must mean the betrayal of her patient.
It was possible, however, that she could hide Captain Castaigne away for a time at least, while she remained unmolested in the little farmhouse, with Duke as her protector. She would explain to the German officer in command just what had taken place that caused her to be left behind by[217] the hospital staff. Then there would be little reason for interfering with her, unless the farmhouse should be required for the shelter of the soldiers. But as it was small and somewhat out of the way she hoped it might be ignored.
The chiefly important thing was to wait quietly until the next morning and then find out Captain Castaigne’s condition. Eugenia meant to make as brave a fight for his life as possible. If he recovered there would be time enough to determine whether he should surrender or make an effort to escape and rejoin his command. Fortunately there were both provisions and medical supplies stored in the farmhouse. Judge Thornton had sent fresh orders of both from Paris quite recently.
So for the rest of the afternoon and evening Eugenia sat by her patient while Duke crouched on the floor near them both. No one disturbed them; the little house might have been in the center of a vast desert for any human interest it created. The day before Eugenia had closed its outside windows and doors, and since had opened only the one window necessary for light and air.
[218]
For the greater part of the night Captain Castaigne was delirious from a high fever. Eugenia knew that it would be almost impossible for him to escape blood poison, after the dirt had been ground into his wounds from the long dragging of his body on the earth.
Nevertheless, now and then the young officer slept the sleep of utter exhaustion, with Duke and Eugenia both slumbering beside him whenever this opportunity came.
Eugenia did not question the reason for her care. She had not liked the young Frenchman at their first meeting in Paris. Certainly their second accidental meeting in the woods had not increased her liking. Moreover, she had been entirely out of sympathy with him, with his mother and with their French ideas and environment on the afternoon of her one call.
Yet none of these things counted in the least with Eugenia. Captain Castaigne was a French soldier, one of the men whom she had come to Europe to nurse in case he needed her care. Therefore he should have the best it was in her power to offer.
[219]
Once, while in the act of giving him medicine to relieve his fever, the young man murmured his mother’s name and for the instant Eugenia was moved to sympathy. All the rest of the time her feeling was entirely impersonal. Captain Castaigne was merely a patient who must if possible be kept alive and later restored to health. If she had any feeling in the matter Eugenia was sorry that she had ever made the young man’s acquaintance before this night.
Nevertheless, at about six o’clock the following morning, after an entire hour of refreshing sleep, Eugenia opened her eyes to find her patient gazing steadfastly at her. For the time being his delirium had passed and she realized that he recognized her and longed to ask questions but was still too weak and ill to speak.
A half an hour afterwards, after a few sips of clam bouillon which chanced to be among the household stores, Captain Castaigne said a few words.
“What does this mean?” he asked in painstaking English, appreciating even in his present condition that Miss Peabody[220] preferred the conversation to take place in her native tongue.
Eugenia thought quickly. The young officer could not entirely grasp the situation even if she were able to tell him the entire story. Moreover, at present the stor............