That had not happened in the last war, and it upset him.
But on that day nothing could upset him for very long.
He was going fishing for the first time next morning, and the evening was occupied in sorting out his gear, soaking his casts and selecting flies.
He walked six miles next day and caught three blue trout.
He got back tired and happy at about six o'clock, had dinner, and went up immediately to bed.
In that way he missed the first radio broadcasts of the evacuation of Dunkirk.
Next day he was jerked finally from his complacence.
He sat by the radio in the estaminet for most of the day, distressed and worried.
The gallant retreat from the beaches stirred him as nothing had for months; for the first time he began to feel a desire to return to England.
He knew that if he went, there would be nothing for him to do, but he wanted to be back.
He wanted to be in the thick of things again, seeing the British uniforms in the streets, sharing the tension and anxiety.
Cidoton irked him with its rustic indifference to the war., By the 4th June the last forces had left Dunkirk, Paris had had its one and only air-raid, and Howard had made up his mind.
He admitted as much that night to Mrs Cavanagh.
'I don't like the look of things at all,' he said.
'Not at all.
I think I shall go home.
At a time like this, a man's place is in his own country.'
She looked at him, startled.
'But surely, you're not afraid that the Germans will come here, Mr Howard?
They couldn't get as far as this.'
She smiled reassuringly.
'No,' he said, 'they won't get much farther than they are now.
But at the same time, I think I shall go home. ' He paused, and then he said a little wistfully:
'I might be able to get into the A. R. P.'
She knitted on quietly.
'I shall miss having you to talk to in the evenings,' she said.
'The children will miss you, too.'
'It has been a great pleasure to have known them,' he said.
'I shall miss them.'
She said: 'Sheila enjoyed the little walk you took her for.
She put the flowers in her tooth-mug.'
It was not the old man's way to act precipitately, but he gave a week's notice to Madame Lucard that night and planned to leave on the eleventh.
He did it in the estaminet, and provoked a lively discussion on the ethics of his case, in which most of the village took part.
At the end of an hour's discussion, and a round of Pernod, the general opinion was favourable to him.
It was hard on Madame Lucard to lose her best guest, the gendarme said, and sad for them to lose their English Camarade, but without doubt an old soldier should be in his own country in these times.
Monsieur was very right.
But he would return, perhaps?
Howard said that he hoped to return within a very few weeks, when the dangerous stage of the war had passed.
Next day he began to prepare for his journey.
He did not hurry over it because he meant to stay his week out.
In fact, he had another day's fishing and caught another two blue trout.
There was a lull in the righting for a few days after the evacuation from Dunkirk and he went through a day of indecision, but then the Germans thrust again on the Somme and he went on preparing to go home.
On the ninth of June Cavanagh appeared, having driven unexpectedly from Geneva in his little car.
He seemed more worried and distrait than usual, and vanished into the bedroom with his wife.
The children were sent out to play in the garden.
An hour later he tapped on the door of Howard's bedroom.
The old man had been reading in a chair and had dropped asleep, the book idle on his lap.
He woke at the second tap, settled his spectacles, and said:
'Come in!'
He stared with surprise at his visitor, and got up.