- gretted with icy courtesy that their rooms would not be
available another night, owing to a previous arrangement which he had unfortunately overlooked.
"Nonsense!" said Brand shortly. "I have taken these rooms for three nights, and I intend to stay in them."
"It is impossible," said the manager. "I must ask you to have your baggage packed by twelve o'clock."
Brand dealt with him firmly.
"I am an English officer. If I hear another word from you I will call on the Provost Marshal and get him to deal with you."
The manager bowed. This threat cowed him, and he said no more about a change of rooms. But Brand and his wife, and I as their friend, suffered from a policy of passive resistance to our presence. The chambermaid did not answer their bell, having become strangely deaf. The waiter was generally engaged at other tables whenever we wanted him. The hall porter turned his back upon us. The page-boys made grimaces behind our backs, as I saw very well in the gilt mirror, and as Elsa saw.
They took to having their meals out, Brand insisting always that I should join them, and we drove out to the Bois and had tea there in the Châlet des Iles. It was a beautiful afternoon in September, and the leaves were just turning to crinkled gold and the lake was as blue as the cloudless sky above. Across the ferry came boatloads of young Frenchmen with their girls, singing, laughing, on this day of peace. Some of the men limped as they came up the steps from the landing-stage. One walked on crutches. Another had an empty sleeve. Under the trees they made love to their girls and fed them with rose-tinted ices.
"These people are happy," said Elsa. "They have for-
