Volume Ii Part 12 (2/2)
”And the cross in the ravine--are we far from that?”
”The cross in the ravine! Jesus, my Lord! you want to go to the cross in the ravine! at night! What in the world do you want to go there for?”
”From curiosity.”
”The deuce! you must be mighty curious, then!”
”Is it dangerous to go by there?”
”Bless me! this much is sure, that n.o.body round here would want to go through the ravine at night. As soon as you get near it, you hear groans and complaints.--It's the dead man come back, for sure.”
”I don't believe in ghosts myself.”
”It's plain you don't belong round here. Well, if you take the road I told you, you're bound to pa.s.s, not through the ravine, but by one end of it. Good-night, mesdames.”
”Will you let us take your a.s.s to return to Ch.e.l.les? we will pay whatever you choose.”
”No, no; I don't let my a.s.s to folks who want to go to the dead man's cross! No, thank you! Besides, Julie wouldn't go, either; she'd balk.
Come, away with you, my poor Julie!”
And the peasant who gave her jenny the name of Julie went her way, driving the beast before her.
”We know our way now,” said Honorine; ”let's make haste, for it will soon be entirely dark.”
”The thunder is still rumbling.”
”That isn't what I am afraid of.”
”Do you mean to say that you believe in that peasant woman's nonsense, and the groans that are heard in the ravine?”
”I'll tell you this, that when we pa.s.s the place, I shall run. Mon Dieu!
how dark it is!”
”Here we are on the main road, at all events. We must turn to the left again.”
”I can hardly see, and I am beginning to be very tired.”
”Oh! look, my dear, this narrow path between those two little hills must be the ravine.”
”Well! perhaps you would like to go in there, to delay us still more?”
”Oh! I entreat you, just a minute, to see the cross. I don't know what is taking place in me, but it seems to me that I must go there, and--and pray for the unhappy man who met his death there.”
”Why, Agathe, you are positively foolis.h.!.+ I am not willing to stop.”
”Ah! listen! did you hear?”
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