"Do you hear?" said Bertha.
"No," said Michel, shaking his head.
"Well, I hear," she said, her eyes gleaming and her ears alert, as she strained them eagerly.
"What do you hear?"
"My horse's step and that of my sister Mary's horse. They are coming for me. Something must have happened." She listened again. "Mary has come herself."
"How can you tell that?" asked the young man.
"By the way the horses gallop. Let us walk faster, please."
The sounds came nearer, and in less than five minutes a dark group showed in the distance. Soon it was seen to be two horses,--a woman riding one and leading the other.
"I told you it was my sister," said Bertha.
The young man had already recognized her, less by her person, scarcely distinguishable in the darkness, than by the beating of his heart.