Produced by Dagny John BickersTHE FIREFLY OF FRANCEby Marion Polk AngellottiTOTHE MEMORY OFTHE HEROIC GUYNEMERTHE ACE OF THE ACES     PREPARERS NOTE     This text was prepared from a 1918 edition     published by The Century Co New YorkTHE FIREFLY OF FRANCECHAPTER IALARUMS AND EXCURSIONSThe restaurant of the Hotel St Ives seems as I look back on it an oddspot to have served as stage wings for a melodrama pure and simple Yeta melodrama did begin there No other word fits the case The innsof the Middle Ages which I believe reeked with trapdoors andcutthroats pistols and poisoned daggers offered nothing weirder thanmy experience with its first scene set beneath this roof The foodthere is superperfect every luxury surrounds you millionaires andtraveling princes are your fellowguests Still sooner than passanother night there I would sleep airily in Central Park and if I hada friend seeking New York quarters I would guide him toward some otherplaceIt was pure chance that sent me to the St Ives for the night before mysteamer sailed Closing the doors of my apartment the previous week andbidding goodbye to the servants who maintained me there in bachelorstate and comfort I had accompanied my friend Dick Forrest on afarewell yacht cruise from which I returned to find the first two hotelsof my seeking packed from cellar to roof But the third had a free roomand I took it without the ghost of a presentiment What would or wouldnot have happened if I had not taken it is a thing I like to speculateonTo begin with I should in due course have joined an ambulance sectionsomewhere in France I should not have gone hobbling on crutches for apainful three months or more I should not have in my possessionfour shell fragments carefully extracted by a French surgeon from myfortunately hard head Nor should I have lived through the dreadfulmoment when that British officer at Gibraltar held up those papersneatly folded and sealed and bound with bright inappropriately cheerfulred tape and with an icy eye demanded an explanation beyond human powerto affordAll this would have been spared me But on the other hand I could notnow look back to that dinner on the TurinParis _rapide_ I should neverhave seen that little ruined French village with guns booming in thedistance and the nearer sound of water running through tall reeds andover green stones and between great mossy trees Indeed my life wouldnow be comparatively speaking a cheerless desert because I shouldnever have met the most beautifulWell all clouds have silver liningssome have golden ones with rainbow edges No I am not sorry I stoppedat the St Ives not in the leastAt any rate there I was at eight oclock of a Wednesday evening in arestaurant full of the usual lights and buzz and glitter among womenin softhued gowns and men in their hideous substitute for thesame Across the table sat my onetime guardian dear old PeterDunstanDunny to me since the night when I first came to him a verytearful lonesome small boy whose loneliness went away forever with hiswelcoming hugjust arrived from home in Washington to eat a farewelldinner with me and to impress upon me for the hundredth time that I hadbetter not goIts a wildgoose chase he snapped attacking his entree savagelyHeaven knows it was to prove so even wilder than his dreams couldpaint but if there were geese in it myself included there was also tobe a swanYou dont really mean that Dunny I said firmly continuing mydinner It was a good dinner we had consulted over each item fromcocktails to liqueurs and we are both distinctly fussy about foodI do mean it insisted my guardian Dunny has the biggest heart in theworld with a cayenne layer over it and this layer is always thickestwhen I am bound for distant parts I mean every word of it I tellyou Dev Dev like Dunny is a misnomer my name is DevereuxDevereuxBayne Dont you risk your bones enough with the confounded games youplay Whats the use of hunting shells and shrapnel like a hero in amovie reel Were not in this war yet though we soon will be praisethe Lord And till we are I believe in neutralityupon my soul I doHeres news then I exclaimed I never heard of it before Wellyour new life begins too late Dunny You brought me up the other wayThe modern system you know makes the parent or guardian responsiblefor the child So thank yourself for my unneutral nature and for the warmedals Im going to winMuttering something about impertinence he veered to another tackIf you must do it he croaked why sail for Naples instead of forBordeaux The Mediterranean is full of those pirate fellows Youread the papersthe headlines anyway you know it as well as I Itssuicide no less Those Huns sank the _San Pietro_ last week I sayyoung man are you listening Do you hear what Im telling youIt was true that my gaze had wandered near the close of his harangueI like to look at my guardian the fine old chap with his height andstraightness his bright blue eyes and proud silver head is a sight forsore eyes as they say But just then I had glimpsed something that waseven better worth seeing I am not impressionable but I must confessthat I was impressed by this girlShe sat far down the room from me Only her back was visible and asomewhat blurred sideview reflected in the mirror on the wall Even somuch was however more than welcome including as it did a smooth whiteneck a small shelllike ear and a mass of warm crinkly redbrownhair She wore a rosecolored gown I noticed cut low with a string ofpearls and her sole escort was a staid elderly precise being ratherof the trusted familylawyer typeI havent missed a word Dunny I assured my visavis I was justwondering if Huns and pirates had quite a neutral sound You know I haveto go via