In the QuarterChambers, Robert W. (Robert William)
General
In the Quarter
Chambers, Robert W. (Robert William)
Quartier latin (Paris, France) -- Fiction
The rumble of wheels caused him to turn. A clumsy, blue-covered wagon
drew up at the second fountain. It was a military ambulance. A
red-capped trooper sprang down jingling from one of the horses, and was
joined by two others who had followed the ambulance and who also
dismounted. Then the three approached a group of policemen who were
lifting something from the pavement. At the same moment he heard voices
beside him, and turning, found that the girl had risen and was sitting
on the campstool, her head leaning against the little stranger’s
shoulder.
An officer stood looking down at her. His boots were spotless. The band
of purple on his red and gold cap showed that he was a surgeon.
“Can we be of any assistance to madame?” he inquired.
“I was looking for a cab,” said Gethryn, “but perhaps she is not strong
enough to be taken to her home.”
A frightened look came into the girl’s face and she glanced anxiously
at the ambulance. The surgeon knelt quietly beside her.
“Madame is not seriously hurt,” he said, after a rapid examination.
“The right arm is a little strained, but it will be nothing, I assure
you, Madame; a matter of a few days, that is all.”
He rose and stood brushing the knees of his trousers with his
handkerchief. “Monsieur is a foreigner?”
Gethryn smiled. “The accent?”
“On the contrary, I assure you, Monsieur,” cried the officer with more
politeness than truth. He eyed the ambulance. “The people of Paris have
learned a lesson today,” he said.
A trooper clattered up, leading an officer’s horse, and dismounted,
saluting. The young surgeon glanced at his watch.
“Picard,” he said, “stop a closed cab and send it here.”
The trooper wheeled his horse and galloped away across the square, and
the officer turned to the others.
“Madame, I trust, will soon recover,” he said courteously. “Madame,
messieurs, I have the honor to salute you.” And with many a clink and
jingle, he sprang into the saddle and clattered away in the wake of the
slowly moving ambulance.
At the corner of the Rue Royale, Gethryn saw the trooper stop a cab and
point to the Obelisk. He went over and asked the canary-colored
stranger, “Will you take her home, or shall I?”
“Why, you, of course; you brought her here.”
“No, I didn’t. I never saw her until I noticed her being pushed about
by the crowd.” He caught the girl’s eye and colored furiously, hoping
she did not suspect the nature of their discussion. Before her
helplessness it seemed so brutal.
The cab drew up before the Obelisk and a gruff voice cried, “V’la!
M’ssieurs!—’dames!”
“Put your arm on my shoulder—so,” said Gethryn, and the two men raised
her gently. Once in the cab, she sank back, looking limp and white.
Gethryn turned sharply to the other man.
“Shall I go?”
“Rather,” replied the little stranger, pleasantly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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