Page:Ruth of the U.S.A. (IA ruthofusa00balm).pdf/140

 "They're going away, I think," he said to reassure her.

The detonations of the torpedoes dropped upon the city surely were less; the guns diminished their fire; the flashes in the sky were farther away; and the hum of the airplane motors and the bursts of machine-gun fire no longer were to be heard.

A bugle from somewhere blew a none-too-confident "All clear." The train moved on and drew after midnight into the darkened Gare du Quai-d'Orsay.

It composed for Ruth a far different entrance to Paris than any she had dreamed—the dark, almost deserted railroad station as a center of an expanse vague and doubtful under the starlit city haze. A man who repeated, "Mees Seenthya Gaiil" and "Meester Huber' Lennon," in patient, respectful intoning, stood at the gates from the train. He had a car, toward which he escorted Ruth and Milicent (who, Ruth insisted, must not try to find a place for herself that night) and Hubert.

Several of the Ribot's men came and said good-bye to Ruth and Milicent again and made last memoranda of how they could later be located. Gerry Hull appeared and, in her brief moment with him, Ruth marveled at the change in him. The air raid and the view of his comrades fighting again and, too, this nearness of his return to duty had banished all boyishness from him; a simple sternness suddenly had returned him to a maturity which made her wonder how she ever could have assumed to scold and correct him as once she had.

He saw that Ruth and Milicent passed the formalities at the gare. He ascertained that they had a vehicle; he