Part 12 (1/2)
Guynehted, and when the party broke up he went out with the gentleman who had said this and thanked him warmly ”Don't you see how little they understand? I don't say I am modest, but if I weren't I would be a fool, and I should not like to be that I know quite well that just now so so et more than one's share Whereas the men in the trenches--how different it is with them!”[24]
[Footnote 24: _Journal des Debats_ for September 26, 1917]
But it was inevitable that he should be lionized People came to him with albums and pictures He wrote to his father that a Mada, just one sentence, in an albuside the Generalissimo What on earth can I write?”
An Auest at the Hotel Edouard VII wanted to have at any price so away an old glove of Guyne on a chest of drawers, and replace it by a nificent bouquet ”This lady put me in a nice dilemma,” Guyneetting any loves”[25]
[Footnote 25: Anecdote related in the _Figaro_ for September 29, 1917]
He had no affectation, least of all the kind that pretends to be ignorant of one's own popularity; but surely he cared little for popularity Here again he puts us in mind of a medieval poehter of Anseis is described seated at the , ”fresh, slihts, Garin and his cousin Gilbert, happen to ride near ”Look up, cousin Gilbert,” says Garin, ”look By our lady, what a handsome dame!” ”Oh,” answers Gilbert, ”what a handso so lovely as this maiden with her fair skin and dark eyes I never knew any steed that could compare with mine” And so on, while Gilbert still refuses to look up at the beautiful daughter of Anseis Also in _Girard de Viane_, Charle his court at the palace of Vienne, has just placed the hand of the lovely Aude in that of his nephew Roland Both the girl and the great soldier are silent and blushi+ng while the date of the wedding is being discussed, when a er suddenly rushes in: ”The Saracens are in France! War!
war!” shout the bystanders Then without a word Roland drops the white hand of the girl, springs to arone So Guynemer would have praised his Nieuport or his Spad as Gilbert praised his steed, and _belle Aude_ herself could not have kept hiht
[Illustration: COMBAT]
One day his father felt doubts about the capacity of such a young man to resist the intoxication of so much flattery from men and wo my nerves as an acrobat watches his muscles I have chosen my own mission, and I must fulfil it”
After his death, one of his friends, the one who spoke to hi letters which he did not even read 'Read them if you like,' he said to me, and I destroyed them
He only read letters frolon_ Prokesch brings thehim letters from women, he says:
Voila Ce que c'est d'avoir l'aureole fatale
As soon as Prokesch begins to read them, the Prince stops him with the words: ”_Je dechire_” Even when a wo”--”because the water sleeping in her eyes or purling in her voice has often cooled his fever”--announces her departure, hoping he ain like a refrain, ”_Je dechire_”
Did Guyne letters, or as the falcon of St Jean l'Hospitalier dealt with birds?--No ”Little Spring,” had her voice been ever so rill-like, could have detained hi invited hi public, Guynene, where he beca and char could distract hi the snapshots he took of his eneun and bringing thereatest pleasures when on leave was to arrange and show these photographs
His eyes, which saw everything, were keen to detect the least changes in the arrangement of his home, even when mere knickknacks had been moved about At each visit he found the house ornahted to find that a miniature barkentine, which he had built with corks, paper, and thread when he was seven years old, still stood on his e his powers of observation had been evident, and he had forgotten no detail of sails or rigging
He had taken again so naturally his old place in the faot once and called the tall, fa man by his old familiar name, ”_Bebe_” She quickly corrected herself, but he said:
”I am always that to you, Mother”
”I was happier when you were little,” she observed
”I hope you are not vexed with rown up”
He was naturally full of the one subject that interested hio round the house collecting audiences