Volume II Part 102 (1/2)
”What you say is frightful!” said the count.
”For him who knows how to read it, the human body is a book where one learns to save the life of the sick,” said Dr. Griffon, stoically.
”However, you do good,” said Saint Remy, bitterly; ”that is the important thing. What matters the cause, as long as the benefit exists! Poor child, the more I look at her, the more she interests me.”
”And she deserves it, sir,” cried La Louve, pa.s.sionately, drawing near.
”You know her?” said the count.
”Know her, sir? To her I owe the happiness of my life; in saving her I have not done as much for her as she has done for me.”
”And who is she?” asked the count.
”An angel, sir; all that is good in the world. Yes, although she is dressed as a peasant girl there is not a grand lady who can talk as well as she can, with her soft little voice, just like music. She is a n.o.ble girl, and courageous and good.”
”How did she fall in the water?”
”I do not know, sir.”
”She is not a peasant girl, then?” asked the count.
”A peasant girl! Look at her small white hands, sir!”
”It is true,” said Saint Remy. ”What a singular mystery! But her name, her family?”
”Come,” said the doctor, interrupting the conversation, ”the subject must be carried to the boat.”
Half an hour afterward, Fleur-de-Marie, who had not yet recovered her senses, was taken to the physician's house, placed in a warm bed, and maternally watched by the gardener's wife, a.s.sisted by La Louve. The doctor promised Saint Remy, who was more and more interested in La Goualeuse, to return the same evening to visit her.
Martial went to Paris with Francois, and Amandine, La Louve not being willing to leave Fleur-de-Marie until she was out of danger.
The island remained deserted. We shall soon meet with its wretched occupants at Bras-Rouge's, where they had agreed to meet La Chouette, to murder the diamond dealer.
In the meanwhile we would conduct the reader to the appointment that Tom, the brother of the Countess Macgregor, had made with the horrible old woman, the Schoolmaster's accomplice.
CHAPTER x.x.xVI.
THE LIKENESS.
Thomas Seyton walked impatiently up and down on one of the boulevards, near the Observatory, till he saw La Chouette appear.
The old wretch had on a white cap, and was wrapped up in a large red plaid shawl; the point of a very sharp dagger stuck through the bottom of the straw basket which she carried on her arm; but Tom did not perceive it.
”Three o'clock is striking from the Luxembourg,” said the old woman.
”I am punctual, I think?”
”Come,” answered Seyton; and walking before her, he crossed some waste ground, entered a deserted street situated near the Rue Ca.s.sini, stopped about the middle of the pa.s.sage, where it was obstructed by a turnstile, opened a small gate, made a sign for La Chouette to follow him, and, after having taken a few steps in an alley shaded with large trees, said, ”Wait here,” and disappeared.
”I hope he won't make me lose too much time,” said La Chouette; ”I must be at Bras-Rouge's at five, to settle the broker. Ah! speaking of that, my scoundrelly needle has his nose out of the window,” added the old woman, seeing the point of the dagger sticking through the basket.