The big Englishman (accompanied by a little man disguised in very plain clothes as a private Detective) also scanned every passenger closely as he stepped on French soil, and we turned away disgustedly as each was able to furnish the necessary proof that he was on lawful business.  “Come, Struttie, we must fly,” and back we hurried over the bridge, past the lighthouse, across the Place d’Armes, up the Rue de la Riviere and so to Hospital once more.

When things became more settled, definite off times were arranged.  Up to then sisters and nurses had worked practically all day and every day, so great was the rush.  We experienced some difficulty in having baths, as there were none up at the “Shop.”  Dr. Cools from the Gare Centrale told us some had been fitted in a train down there, and permission was obtained for us to use them.  But first we were obliged to present ourselves to the Commandant (for the Railway shed there had been turned into an Hopital de Passage, where the men waited on stretchers till they were collected each morning by ambulances for the different Hospitals), and ask him to be kind enough to furnish a Bon pour un bain (a bath pass)!  When I first went to the Bureau at the gare and saw this Commandant in his elegant tight-fitting navy blue uniform, with pointed grey beard and general air of importance, I felt that to ask him for a “bath ticket” was quite the last thing on earth!  He saw my hesitation, and in the most natural manner in the world said with a bow, “Mademoiselle has probably come for un bon?” I assented gratefully, was handed the pass and fled.  It requires some courage to face four officials in order to have a bath.

Arrived at the said train, one climbed up a step-ladder in to a truck divided into four partitions, and Ziske, a deaf old Flamand, carried buckets of boiling water from the engine and we added what cold we wanted ourselves.  You will therefore see that when anyone asked you what you were doing in your free time that day and you said you were “going to have a bath,” it was understood that it meant the whole afternoon would be taken up.

At first we noticed the French people seemed a little stiff in their manner and rather on the defensive.  We wondered for some time what could be the reason, and chatting one day with Madame at the dug-out I mentioned the fact to her.

“See you, Mademoiselle, it is like this,” she explained, “you others, the English, had this town many years ago, and these unlettered ones, who read never the papers and know nothing, think you will take possession of the town once again.”  Needless to say in time this impression wore off and they became most friendly.