The girl said: That is very true.
It would be impossible for you to go alone, as things are now.
I do not think you would get very far before the Germans found that you were not a Frenchman, even in those clothes.'
She flipped the paper with disgust.
This is a German thing,' she said.
'You must not think that French people talk like this, Monsieur Howard.'
'It is very nearly the truth,' he said ruefully.
'It is an enormous lie,' she said. She went out of the room.
The old man, grasping the opportunity, turned to her mother.
'Your daughter has changed greatly since we were at Cidoton, madame,' he said.
The woman looked at him.
'She has suffered a great deal, monsieur.'
He said: 'I am most sorry to hear that.
If you could tell me something about it - perhaps I could avoid hurling her in conversation.'
She stared at him.
'You do not know, then?'
'How should I know anything about her trouble, madame?' he said gently.
'It is something that has happened since we met at Cidoton.'
She hesitated for a minute.
Then she said:
'She was in love with a young man.
We did not arrange the affair and she tells me nothing.'
'All young people are like that,' he said, quietly.
'My son was the same.
The young man is a prisoner in German hands, perhaps?'
Madame said: 'No, monsieur.
He is dead.'
Nicole came bursting into the room, a little fibre case in her hand.
'This we will carry in your perambulator,' she said.
'Now, monsieur, I am ready to go.'
There was no time for any more conversation with Madame Rougeron, but Howard felt he had the gist of it; indeed, it was just what he had expected.
It was hard on the girl, terribly hard; perhaps this journey, dangerous though it might be, would not be altogether a bad thing for her.
It might distract her mind, serve as an anodyne.
There was a great bustle of getting under way.
They all went downstairs; Madame Rougeron had many bundles of food, which they put in the perambulator.
The children clustered round them and impeded them.
Ronnie said: 'Will we be going where there are tanks, Mr Howard?' He spoke in English.
'You said that I might go with the Germans for a ride.'
Howard said, in French: 'Not today.
Try and talk French while Mademoiselle Rougeron is with us, Ronnie; it is not very nice to say what other people cannot understand.'
Rose said: That is very true, m'sieur.
Often I have told Ronnie that it was not polite to speak in English.'
Madame Rougeron said to her daughter in a low tone: 'It is clever that.'
The girl nodded.
Pierre said suddenly: 'I do not speak English, m'sieur.'
'No, Pierre,' the old man said. 'You are always polite.'
Sheila said: 'Is Willem polite, too?' She spoke in French.
Nicole said: 'All of you are polite, all tres bien eleves.
Now we are quite ready.'
She turned and kissed her mother.