Madame Lelanne must have carried her down the ladder. She was standing
in the yard, and the dust was choking her. Across the street, beyond the
ruins of the hospital, swarms of men were running about like ants when
their nest has been disturbed. Some were running this way, and some
that. And then they would turn and run back again, making dancing
movements round one another and jostling one another. The guns had
ceased; and instead, it sounded as if all the babies in the world were
playing with their rattles. Suddenly Madame Lelanne reappeared out of
the dust, and seizing Joan, dragged her through a dark opening and down a
flight of steps, and then left her. She was in a great vaulted cellar. A
faint light crept in through a grated window at the other end. There was
a long table against the wall, and in front of it a bench. She staggered
to it and sat down, leaning against the damp wall. The place was very
silent. Suddenly she began to laugh. She tried to stop herself, but
couldn't. And then she heard footsteps descending, and her memory came
back to her with a rush.
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