'Come, I will show you.
And then, I will see that the little ones also wash.'
She led him to an untidy bathroom; manifestly, they kept no servant in the flat.
He looked around for a man's gear, hoping for a razor, but the colonel had been away too long.
Howard contented himself with a wash, resolved at the first opportunity to see if he could get a shave.
The girl took the children to a bedroom, and washed them one by one quite thoroughly.
Then it was time for dejeuner.
By padding out the midday meal with rice, Madame Rougeron had produced a risotto; they sat down to it round the table in the salon and had the first civilised meal that Howard had eaten since Dijon.
And after lunch, sitting round the littered table over coffee, while the children played together in a corner of the salon, he discussed his future with them.
'I wanted to get back to England, of course,' he said.
'I still want to.
But at the moment it seems difficult.'
Madame Rougeron said: 'There are no boats to England now, m'sieur.
The Germans have stopped everything.'
He nodded.
'I was afraid so,' he said quietly.
'It would have been better if I had gone back to Switzerland.'
The girl shrugged her shoulders. 'It is always easy to be wise later,' she said.
'At the time, a week ago, we all thought that Switzerland would be invaded.
I think so still.
I do not think that Switzerland would be at all a good place for you to go.'
There was a silence.
Madame said:
'These other children, monsieur.
The one called Pierre and the other little Dutchman.
Would you have taken them to England?'
Sheila, bored with playing on the floor, came up and pulled his sleeve, distracting hun.
'I want to go out for a walk, M'sieur Howard, may we go out for a walk and see some tanks?'
He put his arm round her absently.
'Not just now,' he said.
'Stay quiet for a little.
We'll go out presently.'
He turned to Madame Rougeron. 'I don't see that I can leave them, unless with their relations,' he said.
'I have been thinking about this a good deal.
It might be very difficult to find their relations at this time.'
The mother said: 'That is very true.'
Pursuing his train of thought, he said: 'If I could get them to England, I think I'd send them over to America until the war is over.
They would be quite safe there.'
He explained. 'My daughter, who lives in the United States, has a big house on Long Island.
She would make a home for them till the war ends, and then we could try and find their parents.'
The girl said: 'That would be Madame Costello?'
He turned to her faintly surprised.
'Yes, that is her married name.
She has a little boy herself, about their age.
She would be very good to them.'
'I am sure of that, m'sieur.'
For the moment the difficulty of getting them to England escaped him.
He said: 'It's going to be practically impossible to find the little Dutchman's parents, I'm afraid.
We don't even know his name.'
Beneath his arm, Sheila said: 'I know his name.'