author:C. N. Williamson

“ Miss Mix had placed her (borrowed) car at our disposal, and for that Mother thanked her. In return she would gladly, were it possible, make Miss Mix's stay in Nancy pleasant as wed as profitable. But she could not use her letter of introduction to so highly-placed a public man as Monsieur Dufael, for anyone save those expressly mentioned. Unfortunately, therefore. Miss Mix must look after herself for the days and nights during which Nancy would be our centre.
My ears burned as if they'd been boxed, but the Minx seemed undismayed. ”

“ While Rayières explained that she need not return to Paris, he would telegraph to Verdun and have everything made right, mother sat still as a frozen Niobe, mingled with certain attributes of Medusa. Now, it seems to me that any girl, treated as Miss Mix had been treated by Mrs. Henry Wayne, might have been excused for enjoying the latter's discomfiture, for looking upon it, indeed, as poetical justice. But Nancy Mix is not "any girl." She is uniquely herself. She glanced at mother and Kate, and then at me. ”

“ I think it is that thing to which General Rayières gives his time."
"Indeed? What is that?" According to the answer, mother would remain in the car or enter the church.
"In the pavement is a magic stone. If one steps on it, one marries before the year is out."
"And if two step on it?" I ventured.
For the first time a light of malice sparkled in the melancholy Latin eyes. "Rayières is a large man, and his feet are of a size! There will not be room on that stone for his feet with those of a second person." ”

“ Poor mother had expected Nancy to be painted with a livelier iris for her benefit. She had even looked forward to being motored by Monsieur Dufael himself to the ruined towns aforesaid, instead of merely seeing the refugees therefrom. But as she had deliberately severed all links for the present between us and Miss Mix, she could not requisition Lord John Hatte's car. ”

“ Kate's eyes questioned me. The thought that such a man could not command a motor for a private trip if he wished struck her as peculiar. But I gave mother the last word, and she went to rest with restored serenity.
AT nine o'clock a.m. we set forth in a grey car with Monsieur Dufael and a military chauffeur, Miss Mix's motor being reserved for the long excursion next day. The Minx was a guest, however, and in a pale blue summer frock delighted the eyes of our dignitary. She presented a striking contrast to mother and Kate, hot and rod in their thick tweeds ”

“ Henry Wayne, noted English writer, goes to France to secure material for a war novel, taking her niece, Kate, and her son who is unfit for military service. On the journey they meet Minn Nancy Mix, an American girl who is going to France to engage in war service work. Mrs. Wayne disapproves of the girl and dubs her the Minx but it is only through the good offices of the latter that a permit is secured to visit the front and they leave as a party; in an automobile which the Minx has secured from an officer friend. ”

“ Many a fairy godmother would draw the line at deserting her comfortable palaces and living in a tiny house, almost a hut, passing month after month in a desert of ruin and death. But when American fairy godmothers put their hands to the plough, they keep them there! And now these two are having their reward. Street by street they have waked the murdered town to life. They have rebuilt the church ("that was God's house, so it had to come first") ; they are building new homes for old ”

“ We could, however, make these visits by ourselves. He would give us a card which would open all doors; and he hoped that this plan for our stay at Nancy might meet with Madame Wayne's distinguished approval.
A creature of white-and-orange flame ... high above, white feathers of shrapnel smoke falling as if struck from the wings of a giant bird. ”

“ They made their last stand there, the splendid French soldiers, when the farmhouse had been blown to pieces, and the Germans attacked. But they killed more Germans down in that dark hole than the Germans had left of them to kill. ”

“ Of course, the Minx being of our party, we did not start without incident—her incident. There was a little confusion at the last minute, because General Rayières had suddenly decided to join us, bringing his aide-de-camp and his grey military motor. Who should go in his car, who in ours, became the burning question. Much to mother's disapproval, the two distinguished men drew lots for the ladies, and the General got Miss Mix and Kate, as far as Luneville, where we would lunch. ”

“ She asked Monsieur Dufael's advice. He suggested a small gift which might give pleasure to the refugee children, to whom America had already been gloriously generous. But first she must see them, and judge. She did see them, and in her train we saw them too. We spent hours in the process, for there were two thousand refugees in the huge barrack buildings which the Germans still bomb from the skies now and then. We saw the neat rooms where the old people lead their family life ”

“ She had, she said, no fear for herself, but if the Germans planned to bomb the salt works, we had no right to add to the bag if we could help it. Monsieur Dufael belonged to France, and she to the British public, who would not wish her to run more than ordinary risks in visiting the front for their sakes.
Monsieur Dufael apologized for his forgetfulness of our safety. He was so used to enemy 'planes, that he thought of them no more than of carrion birds. ”

“ It's capable of anything. But what that absurd animal and its equally absurd mistress choose to do in strange towns with strange men, does not concern us. Kindly give me your attention, Henry, while I talk of Monsieur Dufael. ”

“ He would, he said, take us round the town in an automobile, and show us the fearsome destruction wrought by the German 380s—the long distance naval guns. The car being a military one it could not be spared for long, otherwise he would with pleasure (he choked on the word) escort us also to the late barracks, the Caserne Asile Molitor et Druout, where two thousand refugees from the ruined towns of the department were housed. ”