They did not call
him Devil Menendez for nothing. There was a scene, a dreadful scene,
and after that another, and yet a third. I have pride. If I had seemed
to forget it, still it was there. I left him, and went back to France.
I tried to forget. I entered upon works of charity for the soldiers at
a time when others were becoming tired. I spent a great part of my
fortune upon establishing a hospital, and this child"--she threw her
arm around Val Beverley--"worked with me night and day. I think I
wanted to die. Often I tried to die. Did I not, dear?"
"You did, Madame," said the girl in a very low voice.
"Twice I was arrested in the French lines, where I had crept dressed
like a _poilu_, from where I shot down many a Prussian. Is it not
so?"
"It is true," answered the girl, nodding her head.
"They caught me and arrested me," said Madame, with a sort of triumph.
"If it had been the British"--she raised her hand in that Bernhardt
gesture--"with me it would have gone hard. But in France a woman's
smile goes farther than in England. I had had my fun. They called me
'good comrade!' Perhaps I paid with a kiss.
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