noon
As a matter of fact the _ Herald _ next morning reported the miraculous escape of an American found on the very edge of a shell hole , recovering , but showing one of the curious results of shell shock , being convinced that two women had stolen a car from his garage , and had run it into the hole in a deliberate attempt to kill him . Aggie read this to us at breakfast , and Tish merely observed that it was very sad , and that she proposed studying shell shock at the Front . Not until months later did we tell Aggie the story of that night . That morning Tish disappeared , and at noon she came back to say that she had at last secured the ambulance , and that we would start for the Front at once . Privately she told me that in a pocket of the car she had found permits to get us out of Paris , but that the car would be missed before long , and that we would better start at once . It is strange to look back and recall with what blitheness we prepared to leave . And it is interesting , too , to remember the conversation with Mr. Burton when he called that afternoon .