“You think there’s going to be great trouble?” she asked, as Madame Chalice made ready to go.
“I fear so, but we will do all we can to prevent it.” Elise watched her go on towards the Manor in the declining sunlight, then turned heavily to her work again.
There came to her ears the sound of a dog-churn in the yard outside, and the dull roll and beat seemed to keep time to the aching pulses in her head, in all her body. One thought kept going through her brain: there was, as she had felt, trouble coming for Valmond. She had the conviction, too, that it was very near. Her one definite idea was, that she should be able to go to him when that trouble came; that she should not fail him at his great need. Yet these pains in her body, this alternate exaltation and depression, this pitiful weakness! She must conquer it. She remembered the hours spent at his bedside; the moments when he was all hers—by virtue of his danger and her own unwavering care of him. She recalled the dark moment when Death, intrusive, imminent, lurked at the tent door, and in its shadow she emptied out her soul in that one kiss of fealty and farewell.
That kiss—there came to her again, suddenly, Madame Degardy’s cry of warning: “Don’t get his breath—it’s death, idiot!”
That was it: the black fever was in her veins! That one kiss had sealed her own doom. She knew it now.
He had given her life by giving her love. Well, he should give her death too—her lord of fife and death. She was of the chosen few who could drink the cup of light and the cup of darkness with equally regnant soul.
But it might lay her low in the very hour of Valmond’s trouble. She must conquer it—how? To whom could she turn for succour? There was but one,—yet she could not seek Madame Degardy, for the old woman would drive her to her bed, and keep her there. There was only this to do: to possess herself of those wonderful herbs which had been given her Napoleon in his hour of peril.
Dragging herself wearily to the little but by the river, she knocked, and waited. All was still, and, opening the door, she entered. Striking a match, she found a candle, lighted it, and then began her search. Under an old pan on a shelf she found both herbs and powder. She snatched up a handful of the herbs, and kissed them with joyful heart. Saved—she was saved! Ah, thank the Blessed Virgin! She would thank her for ever!
A horrible sinking sensation seized her. Turning in dismay, she saw the face of Parpon at the window. With a blind instinct for protection, she staggered towards the door, and fell, her fingers still clasping the precious herbs.
As Parpon hastily entered, Madame Degardy hobbled out of the shadow of the trees, and furtively watched the hut. When a light appeared, she crept to the door, opened it stealthily upon the intruders of her home, and stepped inside.