Page:The four horsemen of the Apocalypse - (Los cuatro jinetes de Apocalipsis) (IA cu31924014386738).djvu/255

 model of civilization and goodness. Her husband had belonged to this army, her sons were marching in its ranks. And she knew her sons—well-bred and incapable of wrong-doing. These Belgian calumnies she could no longer listen to … and, with dramatic abandon, she flung herself into the arms of her sister.

Señor Desnoyers raged against the fate that condemned him to live under the same roof with this woman. What an unfortunate complication for the family!… and the frontiers were closed, making it impossible to get rid of her!

"Very well, then," he thundered. "Let us talk no more about it. We shall never reach an understanding, for we belong to two different worlds. It's a great pity that you can't go back to your own people."

After that, he refrained from mentioning the war in his sister-in-law's presence. Chichí was the only one keeping up her aggressive and noisy enthusiasm. Upon reading in the papers the news of the shootings, sackings, burning of cities, and the dolorous flight of those who had seen their all reduced to ashes, she again felt the necessity of assuming the role of lady-assassin. Ay, if she could only once get her hands on one of those bandits!… What did the men amount to anyway if they couldn't exterminate the whole lot?…

Then she would look at René in his exquisitely fresh uniform, sweet-mannered and smiling as though all war meant to him was a mere change of attire, and she would exclaim enigmatically:

"What luck that you will never have to go to the front!… How fine that you don't run any risks!"

And her lover would accept these words as but another proof of her affectionate interest.

One day Don Marcelo was able to appreciate the horrors of the war without leaving Paris. Three thousand