the eyes of girls lit up by inner fires, eager, roving, alluring, untamed; and the eyes of soldiers surprised, amused, adventurous, drunken, ready for any kind of fun; and sometimes in those crowds, dead eyes, or tortured eyes, staring inwards and not outwards because of some remembrance which came like a ghost between them and carnival.
In Ghent there were other sounds besides music and laughter, and illuminations too fierce and ruddy in their glow to give me pleasure. At night I heard the screams of women. I had no need to ask the meaning of them. I had heard such screams before, when Pierre Nesle's sister Marthe was in the hands of the mob. But one man told me, as though I did not know.
"They are cutting off some ladies' hair. Six of them—the hussies. They were too friendly with the Germans, you understand? Now they are being stripped, for shame. There are others, monsieur. Many, many, if one only knew. Hark at their howling!"
He laughed heartily, without any touch of pity. I tried to push my way nearer, to try by some word of protest to stop that merry sport with hunted women. The crowds were too dense, the women too far away. In any case no word of mine would have had effect. I went into a restaurant and ordered dinner, though not hungry. Brand was there, sitting alone till I joined him. The place was filled with French and Belgian officers, and womenfolk. The swing-door opened and another woman came in and sat a few tables away from ours. She was a tall girl, rather handsome, and better dressed than the ordinary bourgeoisie of Ghent. At least so it seemed to me when she hung up some heavy furs on the peg above her chair.
A waiter advanced towards her, and then, standing stock-still, began to shout, with a thrill of fury in his
