"I didn't say it was here we saw him," said Jeanne, "and I said it was
Madame who hardly knew him. But he is the brother of a little girl
classmate of our mademoiselle. They are all children together. Well,
every evening at six, except the days when Mademoiselle takes her music
lesson, I go to the school to fetch her home, and that afternoon, as we
were coming up the rue Port Neuf, we met the young man going towards the
station, and when he saw our mademoiselle, he stopped for a moment for a
chat, as young folks will. He was in high good spirits and said he was
off for a fine business trip to the mountains and expected to have a
good time as well as do business, and would be in Cauterets the next
morning. Well, you know Cauterets is just over a ridge of the Pyrenees
from Saint Sauveur and Mlle. Marise said, 'Why, is not that queer, my
maman is at Saint Sauveur just now! Why don't you take the other train
at Pierrefitte-Nestalos and run up to Saint Sauveur for half a day and
take Maman a message from me, something I forgot to ask her before she
left,' and the young man said he had been half planning to go to Saint
Sauveur on business anyhow, and to tell him the message and if he saw
her maman, he'd repeat it. Only he said, 'I don't believe your maman
knows me,' and Mlle. Marise said, 'Well, you tell her you are Danielle's
big brother, and she'll know. She knows all about my school-mates,' and
the young man asked which sanitarium it was in Luz and Mlle. Marise
reminded him, 'No, it's at Saint Sauveur where Maman is,' and told him
the name of the sanitarium, and then he said he hoped he'd get a little
fishing in the Gavarnie, and I said the water would be too high, and he
said he'd go and have a look at it anyway. And then he went along with
his valise. Mlle. Marise is at school or you could ask her all about
this too."
"Eh _bien_, my friend from Saint Sauveur!" said the first man's voice,
in a rallying tone of jocularity. "This sounds as though some of you
country-people must have lost your heads a bit. Come now. Did you
yourself _hear_ her, saying all that?"
"No, of course I didn't," said the other man stiffly, "I was in the
office at Luz. How could I know anything was happening? But the men who
got the body out said she was awful to hear."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account