"What has happened?" she asked.
She looked up with a wandering expression into the kind face of Jean Peuquoy bending over her.
Strangely enough, Jean seemed not to be very melancholy. There even was to be seen upon his pleasant face, mingled with deep pity, a sort of secret satisfaction.
"My good cousin!" said Babette, giving him her hand.
Jean Peuquoy's first words to the beloved sufferer were,—
"Don't give up hope, Babette; don't give up hope!"
But Babette's eyes fell at this moment upon the sombre and desolate figure of her brother, and she gave a convulsive start, for everything came back to her memory at once.
"Oh, Pierre, forgive me!" she cried.
As Jean made him an appealing gesture to urge him to be pitiful, Pierre advanced to his sister, raised her from the floor, and led her to a seat.
"Don't be alarmed," said he. "I have no ill-will against you. You have suffered too much. Don't be alarmed. I will say to you as Jean did, don't give up hope."