The emotion of the young mother was so intense that her face became deadly pale, and she exclaimed, in spite of herself, with an accent of fright:
"My God, Frederick, where are you going?"
David's eyes did not leave Madame Bastien a moment; he understood all, and said to her, with the most natural air in the world, at the same time placing intentional stress on certain words:
"Why, madame, Frederick has said good-bye to you because he is going to take a walk with me."
"Of course, mother," added the young man, struck with the emotion of Madame Bastien, and secretly throwing on her an anxious and penetrating glance.
David surprised this glance, and he made an expressive sign to Madame Bastien, as much as to say:
"What have you to fear? Am I not there?"
"That is true; my fears are foolish," thought Madame Bastien. "Is not M. David with Frederick?"
All this passed in much less time than it takes to write it. The preceptor, taking Frederick by the arm, said to Madame Bastien, smiling:
"It is probable, madame, that our class in the open field will last until breakfast. You see that I am without pity for my pupil. I wish to bring him back to you weary with fatigue."