. . . The
very day of his arrival, he saw Marguerite's mother in the distance. She
was alone. His inquiries developed the information that her daughter was
living in Pau. She was a trained nurse taking care of a wounded member
of the family. "Her brother . . . undoubtedly it is her brother,"
thought Julio. And he again continued his trip, this time going to Pau.
His visits to the hospitals there were also unavailing. Nobody seemed
to know Marguerite. Every day a train was arriving with a new load of
bleeding flesh, but her brother was not among the wounded. A Sister of
Charity, believing that he was in search of someone of his family, took
pity on him and gave him some helpful directions. He ought to go to
Lourdes; there were many of the wounded there and many of the military
nurses. So Desnoyers immediately took the short cut between Pau and
Lourdes.
He had never visited the sacred city whose name was so frequently on
his mother's lips. For Dona Luisa, the French nation was Lourdes. In her
discussions with her sister and other foreign ladies who were praying
that France might be exterminated for its impiety, the good senora
always summed up her opinions in the same words:--"When the Virgin
wished to make her appearance in our day, she chose France. This
country, therefore, cannot be as bad as you say. . . . When I see that
she appears in Berlin, we will then re-discuss the matter.
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