He laughed aloud, a hard, satirical laugh:
"Ha! hah! hah! Honesty itself! All wives are honesty itself,—and all husbands are—betrayed." And he shouted with laughter.
She made no reply, but rose, hastily went down the sloping beach, and at the risk of tumbling into one of the rifts hidden by the seaweed, of breaking a leg or an arm, she hastened, almost running, plunging through the pools without looking, straight to her other son.
Seeing her approach, Jean called out:
"Well, mother? So you have made the effort?"
Without a word she seized him by the arm, as if to say: "Save me, protect me!"
He saw her agitation, and greatly surprised he said:
"How pale you are; what is the matter?"
She stammered out:
"I was nearly falling; I was frightened at the rocks."