He recoiled a little and winced.
"What is the matter?" cried she.
"Nothing, dear girl; you put your hand on my wound, that is all. What is
that noise in the tree? Anybody listening to us?"
"I'll see," said Rose, with all a woman's wit, and whipped hastily
round to hinder Camille from going. She found Josephine white as death,
apparently fainting, and clutching at the tree convulsively with her
nails. Such was the intensity of the situation that she left her beloved
sister in that piteous state, and even hoped she would faint dead away,
and so hear no more. She came back white, and told Camille it was only a
bird got into the tree. "And to think you should be wounded," said she,
to divert his attention from the tree.
"Yes," said he, "and it is rather inflamed, and has worried me all the
way. You need not go telling Josephine, though. They wanted me to stop
and lay up at Bayonne. How could I? And again at Paris. How could I?
They said, 'You will die.'--'Not before I get to Beaurepaire,' said I.
I could bear the motion of a horse no longer, so at the nearest town I
asked for a carriage.
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