"Hush! you must not talk about that now.—Wait a moment; I have an idea that he is asleep; I will just go to make sure."
Ambroisine returned to the room where she had left her father. Master Hugonnet was sound asleep, with his head resting on the table.
"Come to my room," said Ambroisine, returning to Bathilde and taking her hand; "father is asleep, and I did not wake him."
Having reached the bedroom, the two girls threw themselves into each other's arms once more, Bathilde finding relief in weeping on her friend's breast, and Ambroisine already trying to devise a method of diminishing her companion's distress in some measure.
Ambroisine first disengaged herself from that loving embrace, saying:
"Mon Dieu! I forget that you are all wet, drenched! Take off all your clothes in the first place, and get into my bed; I will cover you up carefully, and you will get warm sooner."
"And you, Ambroisine?"
"I? oh! I will lie beside you; the bed is wide enough for us two. But first—here is some wine; you must drink some to put your blood in circulation.—Poor sister! you were out of doors in this storm!"
"Oh! it had begun when my mother drove me from the house, despite my prayers and supplications. I knelt to her; she pushed me away. I threw myself at her feet—she was inexorable!"
"Don't tell me that.—O my God! I do not know if Thou wilt ever grant me the happiness of being a mother; but if I do have children some day, I swear to Thee, O my God, that, whatever fault they may have committed, whatever their crimes, I will never curse them, I will never close my arms to them!"