He liked these women: they were dressed in black with full skirts, and white, stiff caps which brought to his mind the wimples of the nuns....

Some tall, stout girls with blue and candid eyes laughed at the Spaniard without understanding a single word.

The old women with faces as dark and wrinkled as winter apples touched glasses with Caragol in the low cafes near the port.
They all could do honor to a goblet in an opportune moment, and had great faith in the saints.

The cook did not require anything more....
Most excellent and charming people! Certain lads decorated with the _Croix de Guerre_ used to relate their experiences to him.

They were survivors of the battalion of marines who defended Dixmude.