For a while, that was enough for Chichi. She felt very proud to be
the betrothed of a hero of the Marne, even though his intervention had
lasted but a few hours. In a few days, however, her enthusiasm became
rather clouded.
It was becoming annoying to stroll through the streets with Rene, a
simple soldier and in the auxiliary service, besides. . . . The women
of the town, excited by the recollection of their men fighting at the
front, or clad in mourning because of the death of some loved one, would
look at them with aggressive insolence. The refinement and elegance
of the Republican Prince seemed to irritate them. Several times, she
overheard uncomplimentary words hurled against the "embusques."
The fact that her brother who was not French was in the thick of the
fighting, made the Lacour situation still more intolerable. She had an
"embusque" for a lover. How her friends would laugh at her! . . .
The senator's son soon read her thoughts and began to lose some of
his smiling serenity. For three days he did not present himself at the
Desnoyers' home, and they all supposed that he was detained by work at
the office.
One morning as Chichi was going toward the Bois de Boulogne, escorted by
one of the nut-brown maids, she noticed a soldier coming toward her. He
was wearing a bright uniform of the new gray-blue, the "horizon blue"
just adopted by the French army.
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