I wept; I was proud of having so brave and honest a daughter, whom I had not appreciated till then; that made me lift up my head again. The resolution of Jean and Marie-Rose appeared natural to me.
But, as we heard the grandmother groping her way from the other room, by leaning against the wall, I made a sign to them to be silent, and, when the poor old woman came in, I said:
"Grandmother, here is Jean, whom the chief inspector is about to send to Nancy; he will be there for some time."
"Ah!" said she. "There is no danger?"
"No, grandmother, it is a commission for the forest registers; it has nothing to do with the war."
"So much the better!" said she. "How many others are in danger! We ought to be very happy to keep out of it!"
Then, sitting down, she began, as usual, to say her prayers.
What more can I tell you, George, about those things that rend my heart when I think about them?
Jean Merlin spent the whole day with us. Marie-Rose cooked as good a dinner as she could in our position; she put on her handsome cap and her blue silk fichu, so as to be agreeable to the eyes of the man she loved.
I seem to see her still, sitting at the table near the grandmother, opposite her betrothed, and smiling, as if it were a holiday. I seem to hear Jean talking about the good news from Orleans, about the happy chances of the war, which are not always the same.