24.
A few days after my recovery, Madame said to me, "Bécassine, it seems that fresh vegetables aren't available from the merchants here in BLANK. See if you can bring some back from your walks in the country. It would add some variety to our menu."
Right away I asked the landlady to point me in the direction of some market gardeners. She gave me the name of a village ten kilometres away, and told me which train to take. Early the next morning I was at the station. It was the first train. I didn't expect to see a lot of people; but on the contrary the place was mobbed.
The brave woman who was acting as station-master for the duration of the war was in a panic, twisting a lock of hair that hung out of her police cap, and running in all directions without getting anything done. I felt sorry for her. "Don't worry," I told her. "Things will organize themselves. In war as in war!" "Hear, hear!" said the passengers around us.
One of them said, "This young Breton is full of philosophy." That pleased me, and I have to admit it made me feel proud of myself. Everyone has a little self-love!
While they were hitching on an extra wagon, I stood near the man whose remark I told you just now. He was a tall, clean-shaven man, with a manner at once both very good and very important.
He was reading his newspaper when another man approached him and said, "How do you do this morning, my old Joffre?" "Not badly, and you, my old Nivelle?" he replied.
You can imagine what a shock it was to hear those names. I well believe I took a jump. The two of them laughed, and the one called 'my old Joffre' said, "Stick with us, Miss Breton, and you'll see some interesting things."
25.
And now some other men came along. As each arrived, a little red-headed man who had joined our group announced with a ceremonial air, "General Cadorna ... General Broussiloff ... General Douglas Haig."
They took each other by the hand, and asked what news from Italy, Russia, and England.
Me, I was having hot flashes, but there were two things that surprised me.
First was that after having put on such grand airs during the introductions, they all started to laugh, and slap each other on the back, and joke around like schoolboys. And then, they were all dressed as civilians. And, to top it off, none of them looked like the portraits you see printed in the newspapers. I pointed this out to General Joffre, with whom I felt most at ease, owing to his sympathetic manner.
He laughed so heartily that I thought he would choke. When he had regained his serious demeanour, he explained to me, "This is done expressly to mislead the spies."
So I pointed out the redhead, whose face I didn't recognize, and I said to the General (at that time he wasn't yet a Marshall) that he should be wary of that villainous man.
He had another fit of laughter, and then shouted to the redhead, "Hey! traitor, the little Breton says to beware of you." "She has good reason, I am the traitor," responded the other, laughing too. You'll realize I didn't understand any of this.
26.
They weren't finished connecting the extra car. The hour of departure was past. The passengers were restless, and the station mistress went back to running in every direction with a desolate expression and her arms in the air.
Then General Joffre made a short speech to calm the impatient. What amazed me was that he called them "valiant soldiers" though there wasn't a single one of them in uniform. But it didn't seem to puzzle them.
Several of them came to attention. They gave a salute and said, "Very good, General, very good. We'll keep ourselves quiet and wise like true infantrymen." That made the others laugh.
At that moment the redhead, who had been nosing about in the crowd, returned very agitated and exclaimed to the General, "The Emperor is not here, nor the coffee-seller." That seemed to annoy them all, and then one or two cried: "Ah! There they are!"
Two men were running along the station road. They arrived out of breath and apologizing for their tardiness. The one called the coffee-seller carried a large box with a crank attached. That must be how he grinds his merchandise, I thought. I wasn't able to get a good look at them, because at that moment there was a cry of "All aboard!" and everyone plunged into the wagons.
General Joffre invited me to join him in first class, and in the same breath he kindly offered to pay the difference on my ticket, which was for second class. The other generals climbed in too. You can imagine how proud I was to be in such company.
They were very easygoing and unpretentious. One of them proposed a small snack, probably because they would be dining late. The took their provisions from their pockets and shared them around. I enjoyed the meal.
And that gave me the courage to ask them over which country reigned the one they called the Emperor. That made them laugh more. Then they explained that he was not in fact an emperor, but that he was something close to it, because he commanded all of them, the greatest generals on earth. I thought then that he must be some kind of minister of state, or a deputy in the national assembly, considering how unusual it would be for an emperor to be chatting with a coffee-seller in the gangway of a train carriage.
27.
The generals called them in. They presented me to the Emperor, and Cadorna said to him, "Nice head, eh? Sympathetic. What the public is after. Suppose we put her in a scene?"
He replied, "It deserves consideration. I'll think about it. There's no risk in bringing her along."
Between the snack and all the conversation, the time flew. The train as well. It pulled to a stop. I heard the name of my stop, and pounced for the door, leaving my companions my regrets and farewells.
But they said it was their stop too. The generals, the soldiers, everyone got off the train, which made quite a crush. I curtseyed politely to each one, saying, "Goodbye, my general ... Goodbye, my Emperor ... A very good morning to you, Monsieur Coffee-Seller."
The only one I didn't salute was the redhead. There was nothing about that head that made me want to look at it twice. He tried to give me an amiable smile, but that just made the effect worse.
As I was starting to leave, my friend Joffre -- it seems to me that I can call him that without any lack of respect -- asked me if I would be in the village long. I told him would be busy for less than an hour, the time it took to buy some vegetables. "Ah well!" he continued, "When you have completed your shopping, come join us at those barracks over there. That's our general headquarters. You'll see some interesting things."
I thanked him, very pleased with the invitation, and I watched them go off, arm in arm and singing, the generals, the soldiers, the Emperor, and the coffee-seller. It amazed me to see these men of such high station and such low standing behave like such friends and companions.
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