And immediately they forgot this affair in order to speak of the difficulties of the war that were threatening them and their comrades-at-arms.
When Ferragut returned to Marseilles two months afterwards, he was still ignorant as to whether his former mistress was yet among the living.
The first evening that he met his old comrade, the captain, in the cafe of the _Cannebiere_, he skillfully guided the conversation around until he could bring out naturally the question in the back of his mind: "What was the fate of that Freya Talberg that there was so much talk about in the newspapers before I went to Salonica ?..." The Marseillaise had to make an effort to recall her.
"Ah, yes!...

The _boche_ spy," he said after a long pause.

"They shot her some weeks ago.

The papers said little of her death,--just a few lines.

Such people don't deserve any more...." Ferragut's friend had two sons in the army; a nephew had died in the trenches, another, a mate aboard a transport, had just perished in a torpedo attack.