“My God! My God! why am I here!”
It was a mad thing for her to have come. And as if seized with sudden panic, she ran hither and thither, she sought to make her way out of the forest. Three times she lost her way, and had begun to think she was never to see the mill again, when she came out into a meadow, directly opposite Rocreuse. As soon as she caught sight of the village she stopped. Was she going to return alone?
She was standing there when she heard a voice calling her by name, softly:
“Françoise! Françoise!”
And she beheld Dominique raising his head above the edge of a ditch. Just God! she had found him.
Could it be, then, that Heaven willed his death? She suppressed a cry that rose to her lips, and slipped into the ditch beside him.
“You were looking for me?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied bewilderedly, scarce knowing what she was saying.
“Ah! what has happened?”