hesitate, then to resign himself to the situation. He got up, took a candlestick from the mantel, lighted the candle at the fire, and handed it to me. All he said was to suggest that I leave the galoches downstairs. "They're too big and you're not used to walking in 'em." He leaned over Yvon and gathered him up in his arms. The soldier was sleeping soundly; he didn't make a move. His head fell against the old-time cuirassier's shoulder. I opened the stairs. door for Issarles and he started up ahead of me.

I found a very clean room upstairs, much smaller, owing to the sloping roof, than I had expected. A wooden bed was already made up, the red eiderdown comforter showing through the network of a white crocheted spread. I put the candlestick on the table, turned down the covers, and said in a low voice to Issarles, "Wait!" It took only a minute to undo the boy's belt and loosen the laces on the legs of his breeches. Then a tug freed him from his clothes. Issarles laid him on the bed, as though he were a child, carefully crossed the two edges of the pajama top over his chest, made sure it hadn't rumpled under his back, and, last, as though regretfully, drew up the sheet and the covers. Yvon had not awakened.

I took off my blouse and my necktie, unbuttoned my shirt. Issarles was still standing there, motionless, lost in a dream.

I wound my watch.

"Tomorrow I'll get up at six o'clock and come down to wash and shave. That won't disturb Madame Issarles, will it? And then, together, we'll wake him up. Because he looks as though he'd sleep the clock around."

My host didn't answer. He stood there, rigid at the foot of the bed, and I began to feel the chill of the floor through my cotton socks. I had to put an end to this.

"All right, Monsieur Issarles, I'll say goodnight now."

I took his hand, and, without thinking, rather because I felt the need of finishing off the evening in a decent way, I added:

And thanks! You're really a good fellow."

He did not look at me immediately; then his eyes sought mine, as if he were trying to understand why I had said that. Mechanically, he straightened the comforter and, finally, without a word, walked slowly out. I heard his heavy, descending tread. Twice, his step faltered and I thought that the big man, as though in spite of himself, would be drawn back up to the room. But, after a long moment of silence, the door at the foot of the stairs closed softly. I finished undressing and slipped between the sheets. My weight made the bed sag and Yvon slid against me. He didn't take up much room, the little fellow; I didn't push him away. I just moved my shoulder aside so that his head would rest more comfortably, and I fell asleep very quickly, even while I was imagining that I was thinking it all over!

*Galoche: a shoe with wooden sole & leather upper, widely used in France. **Marie-Louise: a colloquial term applied to the young Frenchmen who, in 1814, at a desperate hour in French history, were conscripted by order of the Empress Regent Marie Louise and who fought heroically. In 1915 this term was revived for boys who were called up before the usual age.

41