"
"Not I."
"Of delicacy, then."
"Just the reverse. Confound the young dog! why is he not here to help
me?"
"But, after all," suggested Josephine, "you have only to carry out his
instructions."
"That is true! that is true! but when a fellow is a coward, a poltroon,
and all that sort of thing."
This repeated assertion of cowardice on the part of the living Damascus
blade that stood bolt-upright before her, struck Josephine as so funny
that she laughed merrily, and bade him fancy it was only a fort he
was attacking instead of the terrible Josephine; whom none but heroes
feared, she assured him.
This encouragement, uttered in jest, was taken in earnest. The soldier
thanked her, and rallied visibly at the comparison. "All right," said
he, "as you say, it is only a fort--so--mademoiselle!"
"Monsieur!"
"Hum! will you lend me your hand for a moment?"
"My hand! what for? there," and she put it out an inch a minute. He took
it, and inspected it closely.
"A charming hand; the hand of a virtuous woman?"
"Yes," said Josephine as cool as a cucumber, too sublimely and absurdly
innocent even to blush.
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