Go to h---, and send in your bill!" roared the
soldier in a fury. "Well, will you go?" and he marched at him.
The notary scuttled out, with something between a snarl and a squeak.
Josephine hid her face in her hands.
"What is the matter with you?" inquired Raynal. "Not crying again,
surely!"
"Me! I never cry--hardly. I hid my face because I could not help
laughing. You frightened me, sir," said she: then very demurely, "I was
afraid you were going to beat him."
"No, no; a good soldier never leathers a civilian if he can possibly
help it; it looks so bad; and before a lady!"
"Oh, I would have forgiven you, monsieur," said Josephine benignly, and
something like a little sun danced in her eye.
"Now, mademoiselle, since my referee has proved a pig, it is your turn.
Choose you a mutual friend."
Josephine hesitated. "Ours is so young. You know him very well. You
are doubtless the commandant of whom I once heard him speak with such
admiration: his name is Riviere, Edouard Riviere."
"Know him? he is my best officer, out and out." And without a moment's
hesitation he took Edouard's present address, and accepted that youthful
Daniel as their referee; then looked at his watch and marched off to his
public duties with sabre clanking at his heels.
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