"They are only half alive, I think.

I almost wish the Boche had been in your land....

They are cold, la! And not so very nice to kiss, eh ?" "They're not all like that," said Pennell.
"Ah, non?
But you like the girls of France the best, mon ami; is it not so ?" She leaned across towards him significantly.
Pennell laughed.

"_Now_, yes, perhaps," he said deliberately; "but after the war ..." and he shrugged his shoulders, like a Frenchman.
A shade passed over the girl's face, and she got up.

"It is so," she said lightly.