Part 17 (1/2)
”Do you perchance wish to go out?” asked the Pasteur, who was keeping him under constant observation.
”What of it if he does?” interrupted Madame. ”Did not Monsieur G.o.dfrey inform us that he was unwell? Go then, Monsieur G.o.dfrey.”
”No, not so,” said the Pasteur. ”Remain seated. In one minute I will be ready to accompany you.”
”_Mon Dieu!_ what for?” exclaimed Madame. ”Never did I hear of such a thing,” while even Juliette looked amazed.
Meanwhile G.o.dfrey had risen and was making for the door, with a fixed and sickly smile upon his face. The Pasteur swallowed down his _vin ordinaire_ and rushed after him.
”He is ill,” said Juliette, with sympathy, ”all day he has looked strange.”
”Perhaps,” said Madame. ”That sermon of your father's was enough to turn anybody's stomach, with his talk about devils and witches. But why cannot he leave him alone? A doctor in such a case perhaps, but a clergyman----! _Mon Dieu!_ there they go, the two of them walking towards the woods. What a strange idea! And your father has Monsieur G.o.dfrey by the arm, although a.s.suredly he is not faint for he pulls ahead as though in a great hurry. They must be mad, both of them. I have half a mind----”
”No, no, Mother,” said Juliette. ”Leave them alone. Doubtless in time they will return. Perhaps it has something to do with the stars.”
”Silly girl! Stars at midday!”
”Well, Mamma, you know they are always there even if one cannot see them.”
”Nonsense, child. They only come at night. The question is--where are those two going?”
Juliette shook her head and gave it up, and so perforce did her mother.
CHAPTER IX
THE PASTEUR CONQUERS
Meanwhile, following a short cut through the snowy woods that ran over the shoulder of the intervening hill, the pair were wending their way towards Lucerne. G.o.dfrey, a fixed and vacant look upon his face, went first; the Pasteur clinging to his arm like a limpet to a rock, puffed along beside him.
”Heaven!” he gasped, ”but this attraction of yours must be strong that it makes you walk so fast immediately after dinner.”
”It is, it is!” said G.o.dfrey, in a kind of agony. ”I feel as though my inside were being drawn out, and I must follow it. Please hold my arm tight or I shall run.”
”Ah! the witch. The great witch!” puffed the Pasteur, ”and up this hill too, over snow. Well, it will be better on the down grade. Give me your hand, my boy, for your coat is slipping, and if once you got away how should I catch you?”
They accomplished the walk into Lucerne in absolutely record time.
Fortunately, at this after-dinner hour few people were about, but some of those whom they met stared at them, and one called:
”Do you take him to the police-station? Shall I summon the _gens-d'arme_?”
”No, no,” replied the Pasteur, ”he goes to keep an a.s.signation, and is in a hurry.”
”Then why does he take you with him? Surely a clergyman will make a bad third at such an affair?” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed an outspoken lady who was standing at her house door.
”Where is the street? I do not know it,” asked the Pasteur.
”Nor do I,” answered G.o.dfrey, ”but we shall come there all right. To the left now.”
”Oh! the influence! The strong influence!” muttered Monsieur Boiset.
”Behold! it leads him.”
Truly it did lead him. Round corners and across squares they went into an old part of the town with which neither of them was acquainted, till at length G.o.dfrey, diving beneath an archway, pulled up in front of an antique doorway, saying: