“In the meantime they eat whole potfuls of soup. My husband toils for them all day long, and we live from hand to mouth.”
“Have you no land?”
“Not enough to keep a rabbit on!”
Putting a coin into the smallest child’s hand, money she had saved to buy a pair of gloves, she said:
“Good-bye, be brave.”
When they had reached Montcharvin woods Paule stopped and smiled at her brother.
“Don’t you want to hear my news? Did you speak to her?”
“No, I understood. She accepts, doesn’t she?”
“Yes, she refused Monsieur de Marthenay this morning. It is a secret. She loves you. She is charming, and you will have strength enough for both.”
He did not answer. And brother and sister exchanged no more confidences for they felt the same shyness about their hidden feelings. As they arrived at the gate Marcel spoke to Paule again.