M. de Morin did not reply; but, leaning over to M. Périères, he said in a whisper—
"How can I be reasonable on such a day as this? Within twenty-four hours to stumble across a husband and a rival!"
"Do not make yourself out to be worse than you really are," replied M. Périères in the same tone. "The husband owes his deliverance to you alone, and you are only regretting that he has been restored to us in so deplorable a state. As regards Desrioux, do you bear him any ill-will for having saved our lives and opened up for us a road to Europe? If it had not been for him, my dear fellow, we should at this moment be either lying dead on the ground, or, what would not be much better, prisoners of Walinda."
"Wait a bit," said Delange, coming up. "I have no objection to being taken prisoner by her. Where is the sweet creature?"
"There she is," replied Périères, pointing to the Queen, who was still lying at full length on the grass.
"And what are we to do with her if we start to-day? Shall we let her go?"
"No, a thousand times no!" exclaimed de Morin. "We should be guilty of the gravest imprudence by doing anything of the sort. If she were restored to freedom she would lose no time in collecting together the scattered remnants of her army and would attack us afresh. Cannot you see how ferociously she looks at us?"
"I see," replied Delange, "that she is a splendid creature, quite worthy of the name I gave her, and the interest I take in her."
M. Périères, without paying the slightest attention to the words of the too susceptible Delange, said to M. de Morin—
"How can she attack us if we start to-day? She would not follow us up the mountain."