With that Denise lost consciousness and fell; but Schtrack caught her in his arms, and after laying his pipe on the post, carried her into the house. He took her into his lodge. When she swooned, the girl dropped the bag that she carried; it burst, and the five-franc pieces rolled about the courtyard. Schtrack, sorely embarrassed because he happened to be alone for the moment, ran from Denise to the money and from the money to his pipe, crying:
“Sacretié! this girl has to go and faint just when my wife ain’t in! Well, well! my pipe’s gone out, and the money’s rolling all about! Sacretié!”
Luckily for the old German and for Denise, another lady entered the house at this juncture. It was Mademoiselle Virginie, who had come to invite herself to breakfast with Auguste, and who, when she saw the five-franc pieces scattered about the courtyard, exclaimed in surprise:
“Mon Dieu! what magnificence! They throw money out o’window here! I seem to have come just in time.”
“Don’t touch! don’t touch!” cried Schtrack from his lodge; “it belongs to this girl who won’t open her eyes.”
“Well, old Dutchman, am I touching your money? What an uncivil old villain it is! What do you take me for, Monsieur Helvetian?—What girl can he be talking about?”
And as she spoke, Virginie walked toward the lodge, and she uttered a cry of surprise when she saw the young girl from Montfermeil, whom Schtrack was drenching with vinegar.
“It’s Denise! it’s my poor Denise!” she said, pushing Schtrack aside and taking charge of the young woman.
“Poor Denise! She ain’t so poor, for I tell you that bag of crowns is hers,” said Schtrack, returning to the courtyard to recover his pipe and pick up the money.
Virginie’s efforts were soon successful in restoring Denise to consciousness. When she opened her eyes they rested on Virginie, and she exclaimed, sobbing bitterly: