"Well, well!" said Claudine, "I don’t see as there’s any great harm done after all. You got frightened, that’s all."
"That is all, absolutely!" rejoined Robineau, with a furtive glance at Claudine, who cried:
"Pardi! it wa’n’t worth while to wake up the whole house for such a little thing! But look you, monsieur, next time you’d better try not to throw yourself down on us so sudden like; because it—it surprises a body, you see."
Robineau apologized anew and returned to his sheepskins, happy to have escaped so cheaply. The Auvergnats went to bed again, and so did Alfred and Edouard, laughing over the adventure of the goat; and this time Robineau laughed with them.
The rest of the night was uneventful. At daybreak everybody was out of bed. The young men accepted a jug of milk and prepared to resume their journey. Claude himself offered to serve as their guide and to show them the White House, for he was brave enough to pass it in broad daylight.
Our three travellers left the house therefore, after rewarding the Auvergnats for their hospitality. As she bowed to Robineau, Claudine bestowed upon him a furtive little smile of which many a city coquette would not have been ashamed.
IX
ISAURE
The three friends walked gayly on, admiring the dawn, which is much finer in the mountains than when seen from a window in Paris, or from the gravelled path of a garden. Claude went ahead to lead the way; and Robineau, his spirits lightened by the certainty that he would soon see his château, rubbed his hands and smiled, apparently at his thoughts. Alfred and Edouard joked their companion on the smile he had received from the Auvergnate on taking his leave of her; and, as they recalled the equivocal situation in which they had found him in the middle of the night, they put forward certain conjectures. Robineau defended himself smilingly, with an air of gratified self-esteem; then pointed to the shepherd who was ahead of them, saying:
"Hush, messieurs, I beg; you will compromise me!"
Suddenly the shepherd halted and called out to them: