“Is he wounded?”
“He is dead.”
“He’ll be just as happy if she keeps alive. I’ve got a limber going back St. Omer way. She’d better go in that! Tell ’em!”
Madeleine explained the offer to the Baron, who thanked the Colonel profusely, saying that it was worthy of one gentleman to another.
The Colonel not understanding, when his mouth was empty, bowed as one unaccustomed and inquired: “It is his wife, isn’t it, all correct?”
Madeleine confirmed that the Baroness was “all correct.”
But the Baroness was an obstacle. First Placide, then the Baron himself went up to see her. She would only moan: “No, let them kill me, I shall see him again all the sooner. Besides, it is too late, and I am at least warm with the calorifère!”
Then Madeleine went up. There was nothing dramatic in the meeting between those two, the mother and the mistress of a dead man. Madeleine said steadily: “Madame, Monsieur Georges would prefer you to go!”
“I am sure, madame!”