She made no answer; a look of gravity had suddenly come over her face. The swing, still continuing its rapid flights, owing to the impetus given to it, would not stop, but swayed to and fro with a regular motion which still bore Hélène to a great height. The doctor, surprised and charmed, beheld her with admiration; she looked so superb, so tall and strong, with the pure figure of an antique statue whilst swinging thus gently amid the spring sunshine. But she seemed annoyed, and all at once leaped down.
“Stop! stop!” they all cried out.
From Hélène’s lips came a dull moan; she had fallen upon the gravel of a pathway, and her efforts to rise were fruitless.
“Good heavens!” exclaimed the doctor, his face turning very pale. “How imprudent!”
They all crowded round her. Jeanne began weeping so bitterly that Monsieur Rambaud, with his heart in his mouth, was compelled to take her in his arms. The doctor, meanwhile, eagerly questioned Hélène.
“Is it the right leg you fell on? Cannot you stand upright?” And as she remained dazed, without answering, he asked: “Do you suffer?”
“Yes, here at the knee; a dull pain,” she answered, with difficulty.
He at once sent his wife for his medicine case and some bandages, and repeated:
“I must see, I must see. No doubt it is a mere nothing.”
He knelt down on the gravel and Hélène let him do so; but all at once she struggled to her feet and said: “No, no!”