She bent her head over her work, and plied her needle with unwonted swiftness.
“Well, has the captain been telling you something about Napoleon?” said the doctor, as he came in again.
“Have you seen the Emperor, sir?” cried La Fosseuse, gazing at the officer’s face with eager curiosity.
“Parbleu!” said Genestas, “hundreds of times!”
“Oh! how I should like to know something about the army!”
“Perhaps we will come to take a cup of coffee with you to-morrow, and you shall hear ‘something about the army,’ dear child,” said Benassis, who laid his hand on her shoulder and kissed her brow. “She is my daughter, you see!” he added, turning to the commandant; “there is something wanting in the day, somehow, when I have not kissed her forehead.”
La Fosseuse held Benassis’ hand in a tight clasp as she murmured, “Oh! you are very kind!”
They left the house; but she came after them to see them mount. She waited till Genestas was in the saddle, and then whispered in Benassis’ ear, “Tell me who that gentleman is?”
“Aha!” said the doctor, putting a foot in the stirrup, “a husband for you, perhaps.”
She stood on the spot where they left her, absorbed in watching their progress down the steep path; and when they came past the end of the garden, they saw her already perched on a little heap of stones, so that she might still keep them in view and give them a last nod of farewell.