Antoinette stole a glance at the young girl. She was amazed to see tears stealing down the soft cheeks. Immediately she dropped her sewing and fell upon her knees beside the other girl. She clasped her close and murmured soothing words.
Gale merely clung tightly to Antoinette while sobs shook her slender body. All day she had been thinking, thinking, trying to remember who and what she was. But it was no use. Her mind was a complete blank. A fog shrouded her memory and it would not lift. Not an inkling of the airplane crash did she remember, or her friends or parents back in Marchton. She knew only that this girl and her big brother were marvelously kind to her. The tenderness of Antoinette had its effect and slowly the sobs subsided, but Gale remained clasped in the little French girl’s arms for a long while afterward. Then Antoinette helped Gale to her feet and led her to the little bed in the other room that had been Antoinette’s for years. Later she went into the third and last room of the log building to sit with her brother.
“What are we to do, François?” she asked. “The girl is worried—she is afraid.”
François nodded in quiet agreement. “It is sad. So young, so lovely—perhaps in time she will remember.”
“We will keep her here, François?” Antoinette pleaded.
“You wish for a little sister?” her brother asked smilingly. “But of course she will remain here. Where else would she go when she does not remember anything? It would be cruel to send her away.” After a while he spoke again. “If I but had not hurt myself. I might have been able to learn something about her. In town they may know something.”
Antoinette shook her head. “The snow has blocked the roads. You could not get to the town. We must wait.”
“She is well otherwise?” François asked.
“Yes. It is only her mind that is affected. She is so quiet,” Antoinette said. “I know she is worried.”
François whistled in a low tone to a little bit of fluff curled up in the corner. The dog, a young collie, perked up his ears and trotted obediently over to his master. There he sat while the man stroked his fur.