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Sometimes I caught myself sobbing aloud, and then Tardif's voice, whispering at the door to ask how mam'zelle was, brought me back to consciousness. Now and then I looked round, fancying I heard my mother's voice speaking to me, and I saw only the wrinkled, yellow face of his mother, nodding drowsily in her seat by the fire. Twice Tardif brought me a cup of tea, freshly made.
Tardif's rage choked him. He tried to speak once or twice, then began to shriek an imprecation at Fournel; but the constables clapped hands on his mouth, and dragged him out of the room and out of the house. Fournel saw him safely out, then returned to Madelinette. "Do not fear for the fellow. A little gaol will do him good. I will see to it that he gives no trouble, Madame," he said.
The quarantine was observed as rigidly as ever, but fresh hope and confidence beamed upon every face, and I felt that they no longer avoided me, as they had begun to do before Tardif's arrival.
I was not afraid of the treachery of the sea, yet I could not bear to hear them, nor could Tardif. We landed at one of the stone staircases running up the side of the pier at Guernsey; for we were only just in time for the steamer. The steps were slimy and wet with seaweed, but Tardif's hand grasped mine firmly.
When the first week was over, Tardif's mother came to me at a time when her son was away out-of-doors, with a purse in her fingers, and by very plain signs made me understand that it was time I paid the first instalment of my debt to her for board and lodgings. I was anxious about my money. No agreement had been made between us as to what I was to pay.
The pain I was enduring bathed my face with perspiration, but very little could be done to alleviate it. Tardif's expression grew more and more distressed. "Mam'zelle knows," he said, stooping down to speak the more softly to me, "there is no doctor nearer than Guernsey, and the night is not far off. What are we to do?"
Up and down went Tardif's shaggy mustache, the surest indication of emotion with him, and he fetched his breath almost with a sob. "Well, Dr. Martin?" was all he said. "The arm is set," I answered, "and now she must get some sleep. There is not the least danger, Tardif; only we will keep the house as quiet as possible."
"I never thought whether I esteemed Olivia, but I am satisfied I love her. You may be quite sure she is no adventuress. An adventuress would not hide herself in Tardif's out-of-the-world cottage." "A girl without friends and without a name!" she sighed; "a runaway from her family and home! It does not look well, Martin." I could answer nothing, and it would be of little use to try.
As it was, I tucked up my wet legs out of reach of her dress, and took an oar, unable to utter a word of the gladness I felt. I recovered myself in a few seconds, and touched her hand, and grasped Tardif's with almost as much force as he gripped mine. "Where are you going to?" I asked, addressing neither of them in particular.
Tardif's face was very grave and sad, indescribably so; and, before he turned to me and spoke, I knew it was some sorrowful catastrophe he had to tell. "You see how smooth it is, mam'zelle," he said "how clear and beautiful down below us, where the waves are at play like little white children? I love them, but they are cruel and treacherous.
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