Volume Ii Part 32 (1/2)
”Madame! madame! call off your dog!” shouted the amazon; ”he is biting my horse! you will be responsible for what may happen!”
”The dog is not mine, madame; but I am thankful for his arrival at this moment, for it has prevented you from doing a cowardly thing.”
”Oh! you haven't heard the last of this, madame! The cursed dog! And I shall find this little wretch again, too. We shall see! we shall see! I will find that dog's master!”
But hara.s.sed by Ami, who tried to bite her legs, and obliged to attend to her horse, whom the constant attacks of the dog were driving to frenzy, Thelenie had no choice but to abandon the field of battle. She plunged her spurs into the beast's sides, and gave him the rein; he instantly galloped away at the top of his speed, and horse and rider soon disappeared altogether.
Ami started to pursue them, but Honorine called him back so vehemently that he returned to her side at last, still excited by the battle he had fought.
The young woman looked about in every direction, but to no purpose; the dog's master did not appear. She was about to return to the house, when she noticed that little Emile was still by her side.
”Why did you throw a stone at that horse just now?” she asked.
”It wasn't a stone, it was a lump of dirt.”
”No matter; you hoped to hit that lady, I suppose?”
”Yes, I aimed it at her.”
”That was a very naughty thing for you to do. Just think of all that might have happened: the lady galloped her horse at you----”
”And at you too.”
”And if it had not been for this good dog that arrived just in time, you might be badly hurt.”
”And you too.”
”None of those things would have happened if you had not thrown that lump of dirt.”
”What made that dragoon strike me with her whip?”
”Why didn't you stand aside to let her pa.s.s?”
”She could pa.s.s well enough; there was plenty of room. Does she need the whole road for her and her horse?”
”My child, do you mean always to be naughty? You have already forgotten what I told you the other day; make people love you instead of making them fear you, and you will be much happier.”
The boy looked at the ground and muttered in a low voice:
”No one wants to love me!”
Honorine took a small coin from her purse and gave it to Emile.
”See, I will give you this,” she said, ”but only on condition that you won't throw any more stones or dirt at anybody. If I learn that you have done it again, I will never give you anything more.”
”Not cherries?”
”Neither cherries nor anything else; now go.”