"Tollemache here saved his life," put in Mr. Carleton. "Pulled him out of that affair under the very noses of the sans-culottes. A deuced fine piece of work." But this information was couched in language too idiomatic for Mme. de la Vireville's comprehension.
"M. de Flavigny n'est pas mort, alors?" said she, the conversation being evidently about to end in each party speaking his own tongue.
"Non, pas mort," responded Mr. Tollemache. "Jolly as a sandboy—at least he will be. So's the little 'un. And the address is Cavendish Square. Shall I write it down . . . er . . . écrivez pour vous, Madame?"
"Ah, M. le Lieutenant, if you could come to see my son a little five minute, to tell him about M. de Flavigny! Cela lui ferait tant de bien!" said Mme. de la Vireville, turning the wistful battery of her eyes on the young officer. And he capitulated unconditionally.
(5)
La Vireville was sitting that day, wrapped in a flowered dressing-gown, in the little bow window of the bedroom. It was promotion for him, yet Mr. Tollemache gave an exclamation when he entered.
"By gad, you look as if you had been through a good deal!" he said, and then saw the empty sleeve, and was dumb.
La Vireville stretched out his hand to him. "You behold in me, M. le Lieutenant," he observed, with rather a grim smile, "a twice condemned criminal. I have no right to be anywhere but underground. But what is the news you have to tell me, Monsieur?"
Mr. Tollemache sat down beside him and told him. The wounded man heard him through to the end without comment, his face shielded by the thin hand on which he leant it. At the end he said under his breath, "Thank God!" and held out that hand again to the narrator. "You are a brave man, Mr. Tollemache."
But the sailor, not a very keen observer, was struck by the added pallor which had come over the already haggard face during his brief recital, and which he assigned to the well-known emotional nature of the French, manifested as readily, apparently, at the hearing of good news as of bad. Besides, the poor devil looked very weak. Mr. Tollemache was sorry about that arm.