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Edouard hesitated; but he ended by sending Dard to the town on his own horse, with orders to leave him at the inn, and borrow a fresh horse. "I shall just have time," said he. He rode to Frejus, and inquired at the inns and post-office for Mademoiselle de Beaurepaire. They did not know her; then he inquired for Madame Raynal. No such name known.
Ay, and patient industry to read blue-books, and a ready hand and brain to write diplomatic notes for him, off which the mind glided as from a ball of ice. In thirty years she never once mentioned the servants to him. "Oh, let eternal honor crown her name!" It was only a little bit of heel that Dard had left in Prussia. And so the army lost him. Jacintha shone as a landlady, and custom flowed in.
He said this to Josephine, but his eye sought Rose. "I'm a famous runner," he added, a little bumptiously; "I'll be at the town in half an hour, and send a surgeon up full gallop." "You have a good heart," said Rose simply. He bowed his blushing, delighted face, and wheeled Dard to his cottage hard by with almost more than mortal vigor. How softly, how nobly, that frolicsome girl could speak!
It was a lusty young woman, with a comely peasant face somewhat freckled, and a pair of large black eyes surmounted by coal-black brows. She stood in a bold attitude, her massive but well-formed arms folded so that the pressure of each against the other made them seem gigantic, and her cheek red with anger, and her eyes glistening like basilisks upon citizen Dard.
"Oh, Safar bless you!" the white-beard cried, his eyes brightening. "Name your own price; satisfy yourselves that we have dealt fairly with you; go, and return often again! Come, lord of my daughter; let us make them known to Nebu-hin-Abenoz. But not a word about the kind of weapons you have, strangers, until we can speak privately. Say only that you have rifles to trade." Gathon Dard nodded.
But they soon saw she was almost as white as her apron, and she came open-mouthed and wringing her hands. "What shall I do? what shall I do? Oh, don't let my poor mistress know!" They soon got from her that Dard had just come from the town, and learned the chateau was sold, and the proprietor coming to take possession this very day. The poor girls were stupefied by the blow.
Dard was about to answer, but his superior stopped him severely; then, rising with his hand to his forehead, he replied, with pride, "Twenty-fourth brigade, second company. We were cut up at Philipsburg, and incorporated with the 12th." Raynal instantly regretted his question; for Josephine's eye fixed on Sergeant La Croix with an expression words cannot paint.
The rain did, and poured all the afternoon. Night succeeded, and solitude. Dard boiled over with bitterness. "They are a lot of pigs then, all those fellows I have drunk with at Bigot's and Simmet's. Down with all fair-weather friends." The next day the sun shone, the air was clear, and the sky blue. "Ah! let us see now," cried Dard.
The statesman had never heard of that complaint, so Dard explained that the VULGAR name for it was hunger. "And only smell," said he, "the soup is just fit to come off the fire." Riviere smiled sadly, but consented to deign to eat a morsel in the porch. Thereat Dard dashed wildly into the kitchen. They dined at one little round table, each after his fashion.
Dogs of Prussians! they have got our colonel, they have taken him prisoner." "O God bless them!" cried Josephine; "O God bless the mouth that tells me so! O sir, I am his wife, his poor heart-broken wife. You would not be so cruel as to mock my despair. Say again that he may be alive, pray, say it again!" "His wife! Private Dard, why didn't you tell me? You tell me nothing.
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