"Come, come," said she, "all is going well. Here, Brainstein, you go and eat a piece of beef and drink a glass of wine. Here is a crown-piece for your trouble; I should like to have to give you a similar sum every week for just such another letter."
The postman, delighted with this gratuity, followed the old woman; Louise walked behind, and Jean-Claude came after, impatient to question Brainstein on all that he had learnt by the way touching present events, but he gained nothing new from him, except that the Allies were investing Bitche and Lutzelstein, and that they had lost several hundred men in endeavouring to force the defile of the Graufthal.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] A sort of sledge peculiar to the district of the Vosges.
CHAPTER XXI.
About ten o'clock in the evening, Catherine Lefévre and Louise, having wished Hullin good-night, went up into the room overhead. There were two large feather beds; and the tall bedsteads, nearly as high as the ceiling, with their long curtains, striped blue and red, had an extremely warm and comfortable appearance.
"Come," exclaimed the old farm-mistress, getting upon her chair, "come, sleep well, my child; for my part, I am quite worn out; I can keep up no longer."