CHAPTER XIX

L’Envoi to Glorious France

A short time after, trunks were being brought down from the attic of the house at Versailles and being gradually packed. Other arrangements were also being made in a leisurely fashion for the closing of the house which Miss Patricia had rented only for a season.

She had grown impatient to return to her work in the devastated districts of France, for now that the war was over the appeal for food and other aid was growing more insistent than ever, and idleness, such as she felt the months at Versailles had represented, at no time really interested Miss Patricia Lord.

Captain Richard Burton had arrived in Versailles a week before and was compelled to leave for England within a short time on a special mission for the Red Cross.

The Camp Fire girls were therefore separating for the first time in many months, since Vera Lagerloff and Alice Ashton were to accompany Miss Lord and continue the relief work in France, while the other girls were going with Captain and Mrs. Burton to spend the summer in England.

Apparently definite arrangements of some character had been made for each person who shared Miss Patricia’s hospitality during the memorable spring in France, save the two members of her household, Marguerite Arnot and Julie Dupont and the new group of French Camp Fire girls, the little French midinettes, for whom Miss Patricia was acting as Camp Fire guardian and whom she apparently had taken under her special protection.

On this morning Marguerite Arnot and Julie Dupont were both at work in the big room which had been devoted to their use ever since their installation at the house in Versailles. At the same time they had continued their work they had received a generous recompense for their service, so that, as the two girls had been at no expense, they both possessed more money than at any previous time in their lives.

Julie was too young to do sewing of an important character; at present she was engaged in pulling basting threads from an evening dress of Mrs. Burton’s in which Marguerite Arnot had made a slight alteration.

She was frowning with her dark, heavy brows drawn close together and her lips puckered, yet in spite of her evident bad temper, she looked prettier and in better health than in a long time.

“I have something to tell you, Marguerite,” she began, “although you need not offer me advice in return.

“Your friend, Miss Lord, invited me into her room last night and told me she would pay my expenses at a boarding school for the next two years if I chose to go. The school would not be an expensive one, as she had many other demands upon her fortune which she plainly considered more important. She also announced that I particularly required a discipline which I had never received. Did you know, Marguerite, that Miss Lord has also asked the group of girls with whom I used to live, her own French Camp Fire group, to go with her to work among the poor children in the devastated country? They are to sew for the poor and help in any way possible in order that they may be trained perhaps as teachers for the home for orphan children which Miss Lord hopes at some future time to establish in France.”

Marguerite Arnot stopped sewing for a moment.

“I trust you accepted Miss Lord’s offer, Julie. You will probably never have another such opportunity in your life and Miss Patricia is right when she says you are in need of discipline. How little like a fairy godmother Miss Patricia looks and yet what wonderful things she does for everybody!”

“Yes, for everybody except you, Marguerite Arnot, and yet I once thought you were her favorite. If it were not for _you_ I should accept Miss Lord’s offer; I am not so stupid that I do not realize what even two years of education may do toward giving me a better start in life. Besides, I know my father would have wished me to accept; he was always insisting that I had no proper education without making the effort to see that I did have one. Really, Marguerite, I think you might have done something for yourself, so that I should not have to worry over you.’

In spite of Julie’s absurdity, the older girl smiled and sighed almost in the same instant, since even so unreasonable an affection was not to be disregarded.

“I don’t know just what remarkable future you think I should have worked out for myself in the past few months, Julie. Just the same I think I can continue to make my living without your sacrificing yourself. Perhaps with your cleverness and with Miss Patricia to help you by paying for your schooling you may turn out to be a famous woman some day and be able to care for me after all! I am not so clever as you are!”

Julie nodded.

“No, you are not, that is why I am so anxious for you to marry. You really need some one to look after you. It was for that reason I arranged for you to go to the Queen’s secret garden. I have been hoping Mr. Hale would become more interested in you, but I’m afraid after all he prefers Miss Graham. You would have liked him to care for you, wouldn’t you, Marguerite?”

Julie’s state of mind, her amazing candor were the attributes of a thoroughly untrained child, nevertheless Marguerite Arnot’s long patience could endure no more.

“Never make a speech of that kind to me again as long as you live, Julie. But one thing I would like to understand. What do you mean by saying you arranged for me to go to the Queen’s secret garden? Was I invited by Mrs. Burton, Bettina Graham, or Mr. Hale?”

Julie shrugged her little French shoulders.

“You were invited by no one of them, your invitation came from me. I simply pretended to you that you were asked, thinking you might make the best of the opportunity. But since you had an agreeable time and nothing happened I don’t see the difference.”

Annoyed by her older friend’s manner Julie had begun her speech in anger, but at its conclusion she was also a little frightened.

Without replying Marguerite Arnot arose and left the room.

In Mrs. Burton’s sitting-room, she was fortunate enough to discover both Mrs. Burton and Bettina Graham, who had been reading a letter together and discussing it.

“I am so glad it is you, Marguerite,” Mrs. Burton declared, as Marguerite entered after knocking. “Bettina and I were just planning to send for you to ask if you would have a talk with us. I suppose you know that Aunt Patricia and I have been arguing as to whether you are to stay with her in France for the relief work or to come to England for the summer with me. But as a matter of fact Aunt Patricia really agrees with me and we both feel you have worked long enough for the time being and are in need of a real holiday. So first of all, will you come with us to England, Marguerite, as one of my Camp Fire girls? Afterwards, Bettina’s mother, who is my dearest friend and the most charming woman in the world besides, wishes you to come to the United States if you like and first of all to her home in Washington. The opportunities for your work ought to be better in the United States in the next few years than in France, and Mrs. Graham will be able to give you a start in Washington and take care of you and be very grateful to you in the bargain.”

“But Mrs Burton,” Marguerite protested, a little overcome by so much generosity and such a bewildering number of opportunities, “you will be good enough to give me time to think over what you have proposed. Of course I know I shall love to go to England for the summer, but the United States seems so far away. What I really came down to see you for was to apologize; I did not know until a moment ago that no one of you invited me on your excursion to the Queen’s garden the other afternoon. It was a wretched mistake and I’m sorry, I can’t explain exactly what happened or why I thought I was asked without involving some one else.”

“Then don’t attempt it for goodness sake, Marguerite, because it was delightful to have you!” Bettina answered quickly, sympathizing with the other girl’s embarrassment, although not understanding the situation.

“It was really a piece of good fortune, wasn’t it after all, Marguerite, a piece of good fortune for me, since it afforded me my only chance for a talk with you alone since our acquaintance?” Mrs. Burton added. “Now you two girls please go away and leave me, because I have some most important work to do. I must write Madame Clermont instructions and suggestions regarding the future of the Camp Fire organization in France.”

Ten days later, accompanied by Marguerite Arnot and five of the American Camp Fire girls, Captain and Mrs. Burton sailed for England.

They were crossing from Boulogne to Folkestone on a late spring afternoon; it was toward the close of a warm and quiet day so that the water was still and blue.

On this passage the little channel steamer was largely filled by British officers and soldiers returning home after service in France.

As the boat pushed off from the French shore a farewell shout rang out from the people crowding the dock; from somewhere back in the old French town a Cathedral bell began chiming an evening hymn.

A British officer chanced to be standing beside Mrs. Burton, both of them leaning over the railing watching the receding line of shore.

“It has been a great adventure, Madame, a world adventure, this fighting for brotherhood in France. I see you are an American woman, yet whether or not one ever returns to these shores, the old axiom is now forever true, every one of us who has lived in France during the war will henceforward have two countries—his own and Glorious France!”

The officer, lifting his hand, saluted the French shore.

Footnotes

[1]See “The Camp Fire Girls on the Field of Honor.”

[2]See “The Camp Fire Girls on the Field of Honor.”

[3]See “The Camp Fire Girls on the Field of Honor.”

STORIES ABOUT CAMP FIRE GIRLS List of Titles in the Order of their Publication

The Camp Fire Girls at Sunrise Hill—1913 The Camp Fire Girls Amid the Snows—1913 The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World—1914 The Camp Fire Girls Across the Sea—1914 The Camp Fire Girls’ Careers—1915 The Camp Fire Girls in After Years—1915 The Camp Fire Girls on the Edge of the Desert—1917 The Camp Fire Girls at the End of the Trail—1917 The Camp Fire Girls Behind the Lines—1918 The Camp Fire Girls on the Field of Honor—1918 The Camp Fire Girls in Glorious France—1919

Transcriber’s Notes

--Copyright notice provided as in the original printed text—this e-text is public domain in the country of publication.

--Silently corrected palpable typos.

--Moved promotional material to the end of the text.

--Corrected inconsistently-cited book titles to match the actual book.