Volume II Part 8 (1/2)
”At first ere stupefied, and felt as if some disaster had befallen us, and we looked at each other with the longing to accuse some one, but whom? Oh! Which of us? I have never felt as I did at that moment, the perfidy of that cruel joke of nature, which never allows a man to know for certainty whether he is the father of his child Then, however, by degrees a sort of feeling of consolation ca from a confused idea of joint responsibility
”To of reassurance by these words: 'Well, so th_, however' At that eons, but they did not fall to on theenerally did, for they all had the same trouble on their mind, and Only-One-Eye continued: 'Under these circu to uilty, so let us shake hands and adopt the child'
”That was decided upon unanimously; they raised their hands to the dish of fried fish and swore: 'We will adopt it' Then, when she was thus suddenly saved, and delivered fro her for a month, this pretty, crazy, poor child of love, Fly, exclaiood heartsgood hearts Thank you, all of you!' And she shed tears for the first time before us all
”From that time we spoke in the boat about the child, as if it were already born, and each of us took an exaggerated interest, because of our share in the ular develop in order to say: 'Fly?' 'Here I airl?' 'Boy' 'What will he be when he grows up?'
”Then she indulged in the hts of fancy They were inter inventions, from the day of his birth until his final triu fancy of this extraordinary little creature, who now lived chastely in the midst of us five, whom she called 'her five papas' She saw him as a sailor, and told us that he would discover another A Alsace and Lorraine to France, then as an eenerous rulers ould bestow settled welfare on our country; then as a learned , first of all, the secret of theforever; then as an aeronaut, who invented thethe skies an immense pronificent dreairl, until the end of the summer, but the twentieth of Septe at the Maison Lafitte and were passing Saint-Germain, when she felt thirsty and asked us to stop at Pecq
”For so very heavy, and that inconvenienced her very much She could not run about as she used to do, nor jump from the boat to the shore, as she had fors and efforts to stop her, and she would have fallen a dozen ti arh to wish to land before the boat had stopped; it was one of those pieces of bravado by which athletes, who are ill or tired, sooing to co and tried to juh, however, and only just touched the stones with her foot, struck the sharp angle with her stomach, uttered a cry and disappeared into the water
”We all five plunged in at the sa wo terrible pain, and we carried her as quickly as possible to the nearest inn, and sent for a e lasted, she suffered the e of a heroine, while ere grieving round her, feverish with anxiety and fear Then she was delivered of a dead child, and for soreatest fear for her life; at last, however, the doctor said to us one irl is made of steel,'
and we all of us went into her room, with radiant hearts, and Only-One-Eye, as spokeser is all over, little Fly, and we are all happy again'
”Then, for the second time, she wept in our presence, and, with her eyes full of tears, she said, hesitatingly:
”'Oh! If you only knew, if you only knewwhat a grief it iswhat a grief it is to et over it' 'Over what, little Fly?' 'Over having killed it, for I did kill it! Oh! Without intending to! Oh! how grieved I a, and we stood round, deeply touched, but without knohat to say, and she went on: 'Have you seen it?' And we replied with one voice: 'Yes' 'It was a boy, was it not?' 'Yes' 'Beautiful, was it not?' We hesitated a good deal, but Petit-Bleu, as less scrupulous than the rest of us, made up his mind to affirm it, and said: 'Very beautiful'
”He coan to sob, and alrief, and Only-One-Eye, who perhaps loved herher eyes, that were dimmed with tears, he said: 'Console yourself, little Fly, console yourself; ill make another for you'
”Her innate sense of the ridiculous was suddenly excited, and half-convinced, and half-joking, still tearful and her heart sore with grief, she said, looking at us all: 'Do you really mean it?' And we replied all at once:
”'We really mean it'”
THE MAD WOMAN
”I can tell you a terrible story about the Franco-Prussian war,”
Monsieur d'Endolin said to so-room of Baron de Ravot's chateau ”You knowthere when the Prussians cahbor a kind of a mad woman, who had lost her senses in consequence of a series of e of seven and twenty she had lost her father, her husband and her newly born child, all in the space of a month
”When death has once entered into a house, it almost invariably returns i worief, took to her bed and was delirious for six weeks Then, a species of calm lassitude succeeded that violent crisis, and she re her eyes
Every tiet up, she screamed as if they were about to kill her, and so they ended by leaving her continually in bed, and only taking her out to wash her, to change her linen and to turn her ave her so to drink, or a little coldmind? No one ever knew, for she did not speak at all now Was she thinking of the dead? Was she drea that had happened? Or was her nant as water without any current? But however this may have been, for fifteen years she remained thus inert and secluded
”The war broke out, and in the beginning of December the Germans came to Cormeil I can re hard enough to split the stones, and I,unable to ular tread; I could see them pass, from my
”They defiled past interminably, with that peculiar s to them Then the officers billeted their hbor, the crazy woular violent, surly swashbuckler