Volume Ii Part 12 (1/2)
mon Dieu!”
”What is it?”
”I felt a drop of rain, a big drop.”
”Let's walk faster.”
But they quickened their pace to no purpose: in a moment the storm burst; the rain fell in torrents and forced them to seek shelter under a huge tree whose dense foliage protected them almost entirely from the downpour.
”We are not lucky in our walks!” said Honorine; ”I shall not leave our garden any more!”
”Nonsense! when it's over we forget all about it.”
”Yes, but this one keeps on, and we are a long way from home! What an idea of yours to want to go to a place that is said to be dangerous!”
”Oho! it's your turn to be afraid now.”
”Not of the thunder, at all events!”
”But the thunder is more dangerous than a cross set up in a ravine.”
”Ah! what a flas.h.!.+ it was superb!”
”It was frightful!”
”I think the rain is subsiding a little.”
”Let us go on.”
”Mon Dieu! here comes the darkness now; suppose it should overtake us before we have found our way!”
”Let us walk, let us walk; we shall certainly meet someone who will tell us which way to go.”
”Oh! how slippery the rain has made the road! We shall fall in a moment; that will be the last straw!”
”Let's take each other's arm, and hold on firmly.”
The two friends walked on, laughing when they almost fell, shrieking with terror when the lightning flashes lighted up the surrounding country. The rain had almost ceased, but the night was coming on, and the farther they walked, the less familiar the road seemed to them.
At last they met a peasant woman driving an a.s.s before her; at sight of her they uttered a cry of delight.
”Madame! madame! which way to Ch.e.l.les, if you please?”
”Why, bless me! you're turning your backs to it!”
”Which way must we go, then?”
”See, take this path to the left; then turn to the left again and you'll come to Gournay; then----”
”Oh! we know the way after that, thanks!”