prepossessing in appearance. He was small and squarely built and had rather a sullen manner. But then Agatha was not the type of girl who would attract many people. She was too quiet and unobtrusive. [101] However, the three girls discovered another bond. The three young men in whom they were interested were musical. If Lieutenant Kelley had to preserve discipline as an officer at other times, the three men could meet on a more common ground with their music. Then Mollie Drew had an attractive voice and a gift for singing old Irish ballads which the solders especially loved. And in the long twilights of those first summer evenings in France, music played a more important part in some of the boys’ lives than they ever believed possible. Barbara could not sing, was not musical[102] in the least, but she did develop an unexpected executive ability, for it was she who arranged the weekly concerts at the little French Casino near the edge of the village. [102] She also made friends with Berthe Bonnèt, who had been studying at the Conservatoire in Paris before the beginning of the war. Now all of Madame Bonnèt’s, all of Berthe’s time and strength was given to the service of the American soldiers. If Berthe could do for them one thing more, she was happy while Bonnèt had become La Mère to half the American soldiers in her one-time quiet old French village. Therefore Barbara found many reasons, whenever she was free from her hospital work, for spending many hours in Madame’s old garden. If Nona thought of this as a convenient place for Barbara to see Lieutenant Kelley, who was quartered with Madame, she could not, of course, mention it. Moreover, Barbara seldom left the hospital unless either Agatha or Mollie were with her. Moreover, Nona’s own spare time from[103] her Red Cross nursing was being given to acting as interpreter. She had a small class of American and French soldiers whom she was teaching to understand each other and found the task extremely amusing. [103] [104] CHAPTER VIII Loneliness
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