“Ah! that is true, he might catch cold. Stay, I will go and fetch a wrap for him.”
“I think, Miss Percival, it would be better to try and wake him skilfully, so that he should not suspect that you had seen him asleep.”
“Let me do it,” said Bettina. “Susie, let us sing together, very softly at first, then we will raise our voices little by little, let us sing.”
“Willingly, but what shall we sing?”
“Let us sing, ‘Quelque chose d’enfantin,’ the words are suitable.”
Susie and Bettina began to sing:
If I had but two little wings,
And were a little feathery bird,
Their sweet and penetrating voices had an exquisite sonority in that profound silence. The Abbe heard nothing, did not move. Charmed with this little concert, Jean said to himself:
“Heaven grant that my godfather may not wake too soon!”
The voices became clearer and louder: