"I shouldn't be surprised to hear some day that he was firing behind the gorse."
"God forbid! Oh! he'll kill me with anxiety. What a luckless idea it was of my husband ever to come to this cursed place!"
"Luckless, indeed, madame,--especially for him."
The baroness bowed her head sadly under the recollections thus evoked. Courtin now left her, looking about him carefully to see that no one was stirring in the château de la Logerie.
[XVI.]
COURTIN'S DIPLOMACY.
Courtin had hardly taken a hundred steps on the path that led to his farmhouse before he heard a rustling in the bushes near which he passed.
"Who's there?" he said, standing in the middle of the path, and putting himself on guard with the heavy stick he carried.
"Friend," replied a youthful voice.
And the owner of the voice came through the bushes.