"What is the matter?" and, "How are we going to get out of this?"
Suddenly he heard footsteps approaching. He perceived a flutter of white skirts behind the copse, and just at the moment he was blessing the lucky chance that had sent some one in that direction, his eyes were gladdened with a sight of the fair visage of Reine.
She was accompanied by a little girl of the village, carrying a basket full of primroses and freshly gathered ground ivy. Reine was quite familiar with all the medicinal herbs of the country, and gathered them in their season, in order to administer them as required to the people of the farm. When she was within a few feet of Julien, she recognized him, and her brow clouded over; but almost immediately she noticed his altered features and that one of his feet was shoeless, and divined that something unusual had happened. Going straight up to him, she said:
"You seem to be suffering, Monsieur de Buxieres. What is the matter?"
"A—a foolish accident," replied he, putting on a careless manner. "I fell and sprained my ankle."
The young girl knit her brows with an anxious expression; then, after a moment's hesitation; she said:
"Will you let me see your foot? My mother understood about bone-setting, and I have been told that I inherit her gift of curing sprains."
She drew from the basket an empty bottle and a handkerchief.
"Zelie," said she to the little damsel, who was standing astonished at the colloquy, "go quickly down to the stream, and fill this bottle."
While she was speaking, Julien, greatly embarrassed, obeyed her suggestions, and uncovered his foot. Reine, without any prudery or nonsense, raised the wounded limb, and felt around cautiously.