My first plan when I went abroad was to change my Harbury French, which was poor stuff and , into a more article, and then go into Germany to do the same thing with my German, and then perhaps to remain in Germany studying German social conditions—and the quality of the German army. It seemed to me that when the term of my exile was over I might return to England and re-enter the army. But all these were very anæmic plans conceived by a tired mind, and I set about carrying them out in a mood of slack lassitude. I got to Paris, and in Paris I threw them all overboard and went to Switzerland.  
I remember very clearly how I reached Paris. I arrived about sunset—I suppose at St. Lazare or the Gare du Nord—sent my luggage to the little hotel in the d'Antin where I had taken rooms, and their loneliness to go direct to a restaurant and dine. I remember walking out into the streets just as shops and windows and street lamps were beginning to light up, and strolling through the clear bright stir of the Parisian streets to find a dinner at the Café de la Paix. Some day you will know that sharp definite excitement of Paris. All cities are exciting, and each I think in a different way. And as I walked down along some boulevard towards the centre of things I saw a woman coming along a side street towards me, a woman with something in her body and something in her carriage that reminded me acutely of Mary. Her face was downcast, and then as we she looked up at me, not with the smile of her class but with a , friendly look. Her face seemed to me and strong. I passed and hesitated. An extraordinary impulse took me. I turned back. I followed this woman across the road and a little way along the opposite pavement. I remember I did that, but I do not remember clearly what was in my mind at the time; I think it was a vague rush towards the flash of companionship in her eyes. There I had seemed to see the of a refuge from my desolation. Then came and reaction. I turned about and went on my way, and saw her no more.
 
But afterwards, later, I went out into the streets of Paris upon finding that woman. She had become a hope, a desire.
 
I looked for her for what seemed ............