"Good-bye, Louis dear!" she finally said without the least show of anger, as she left the house. "We'll be seeing you again on Saturday."
She ran down the street quickly in order to return before the gathering storm broke.
Louis followed shortly to return to his uncle's, whistling cheerfully as he went; but his cheerfulness seemed to me to be a little too exaggerated to be real.
After I'd finished my task I sought out Teresa at the other end of the great house.
"Paula has a bad headache," I said.
"Why didn't she tell me that?" said Teresa. "I'd have sent Louis, but I didn't think of it at the time"
I opened my mouth to say something, and then I shut it again. I had begun slowly to learn from Paula's example not to be a "tattle-tale."
Meanwhile the sky grew darker. Suddenly Teresa said,
"I don't know what's keeping Paula, Here, Lisita! Take this umbrella and go and meet her. I'm afraid she'll be caught in the rain before she gets back."
I soon found her as she turned in at the bottom of the Rue Darnetal. "We must hurry," she said as the thunder began to mutter in the distance. Hardly had she spoken when a flash of lightning almost blinded us. This was followed almost immediately by a great crash of thunder that seemed to shake the very ground under our feet. Then came a sound of confused shouts as if something had happened at the other end of a cross street that we were passing. Could it be a house had been struck by the lightning? No, the shouts increased and changed to cries of terror. Soon we guessed the cause, as we heard a rushing sound of galloping horses, which, frightened by the flash and the clap of thunder, came in sight around a bend in the street enveloped in a cloud of dust, dragging a heavy wagon behind them. Instinctively Paula retreated to a protecting doorway and I huddled in terror close beside her.