"Patience! I'm going to bring him back to you by the ears."
But two small boys in their shirts came tumbling down the steps of the caravan and implored her:
"No, no, mummy Dorothy! Don't you go away by yourself in the night-time. It's dangerous...."
"What are you making a fuss about, Pollux? Dangerous? It's no business of yours!"
She smacked them and kicked them gently, and brought them quickly back to the caravan into which they climbed. There, sitting on the stool, she took their two heads, pressed them against her face, and kissed them tenderly.
"No ill feeling, children. Danger? I'll find Saint-Quentin in half an hour from now."
"A nice business!... Saint-Quentin!... A beggar who isn't sixteen!"
"While Castor and Pollux are twenty—taken together!" retorted Dorothy.
"But what does he want to go traipsing about like this at night for? And it isn't the first time either.... Where is it he makes these expeditions to?"
"To snare rabbits," she said. "There's nothing wrong in it, you see. But come, there's been talk enough about it. Go to by-by again, boys. And above all, Castor and Pollux, don't fight. D'you hear? And no noise. The Captain's asleep; and he doesn't like to be disturbed, the Captain doesn't."