“There is a moon to-night,” said Marie’s father. He was an old man, and he was sitting at this time in the chimney-corner.
“Yes, there is a moon,” replied Marie, “but it is half hidden by the broken clouds that are still floating in the sky.”
“I will light the lantern,” said Orlando, “and go out, and hold it up on a high part of the shore. They will then see the light of it, and it will guide them in.”
Orlando and Bruno.
Bruno was lying before the fire while this conversation was going on. He was listening to it very attentively, though he could not understand it all. He knew some words, and he learned from the words which he heard that they were talking about the boat and the water, and Pierre, the man who was gone. So, when Orlando rose, and went to get the lantern, Bruno started up too, and followed him. He did not know whether there would be any thing that he could do, but he wished to be ready at a moment’s notice, in case there should be any thing.
Anna and the baby.
He stood by Orlando’s side, and looked up very eagerly into his face while he was taking down the lantern, and then went with him out to the door. The old man went out too. He went down as near as he could get to the shore of the pond, in order to look off over the water. Orlando remained nearer the door of the cottage, where the land was higher, and where he thought the lantern could be better seen. Marie, with her baby in her arms, and her little daughter, Anna, by her side, came out to the steps of the door. Bruno took his place by Orlando’s side, ready to be called upon at any time, if there should be any thing that he could do, and looking eagerly over the water to see whether he could not himself make some discoveries.
Watching for the boat.
He would have liked to have held the lantern, but it would not have been possible for him to have held it sufficiently high.