She looked up at him with a sweet expression in her beautiful eyes, and he was fascinated by her sweetness.
"Thank you again," she said, holding out her little hand to him; "thank you for looking after me; and now you had better go on quickly."
"But can you mount again?"
"Not just yet—I feel a sort of stiffness, and a tired feeling all over. No, will you go on and tell M. de Clagny to come with his carriage and fetch me; don't say anything about it to the others; I don't want grandmamma to know."
As Hubert de Bernès was holding her hand pressed against his lips, Bijou went on impatiently:
"Go now, quickly! ask M. de Clagny to leave his carriage on the road, and explain to him that he will find me in the wood near the road, just where I left him a little while ago. And will you fasten Patatras to a tree before you go away? Thank you!" She looked at him again with her sweetest expression, and asked once more: "It's settled, then, for this evening, isn't it?"
"Yes, it's quite settled," he answered.
As soon as he was out of sight, she lay down again in exactly the same position in which Bernès had found her.
A little later the sound of carriage-wheels was heard along the road, and M. de Clagny, getting down from his coach, entered the wood. At the sight of Bijou, he uttered a cry of horror, and, rushing to her, took her in his arms in his anxiety and anguish.
"Bijou, my love! my darling! dear little Bijou!" And then, like Bernès, he added: "listen to me, Bijou dear; answer me; please speak to me!"