“I must pay my respects another time, my dear sir,” said Rodin, as he retired towards the door, bowing to the young girls.
[Original]
CHAPTER LIV. DUTY.
Rodin, retreating slowly before the fire of Dagobert’s angry looks, walked backwards to the door, casting oblique but piercing glances at the orphans, who were visibly affected by the servant’s intentional indiscretion. (Dagobert had ordered him not to speak before the girls of the illness of their governess, and that was quite enough to induce the simpleton to take the first opportunity of doing so.)
Rose hastily approached the soldier, and said to him: “Is it true—is it really true that poor Madame Augustine has been attacked with the cholera?”
“No—I do not know—I cannot tell,” replied the soldier, hesitating; “besides, what is it to you?”
“Dagobert, you would conceal from us a calamity,” said Blanche. “I remember now your embarrassment, when we spoke to you of our governess.”
“If she is ill, we ought not to abandon her. She had pity on our sorrows; we ought to pity her sufferings.”