“Pfui! There was a blast!�
“We shall have to pick the wind’s bones all the way to Paimpol. So good-day, Mademoiselle.... Gaos, run and bid Mademoiselle Yvonne good-day.�
Madame Pilot nudged the other woman again, as much as to say: “Watch her with the child!�
Gaos obediently quitted his mother’s skirts, and Yvonne knelt down to kiss him. She whispered in the child’s ear coaxingly, and, as he hesitated, watched the innocent lips as though her fate in some inexplicable way hung upon their utterance.
“She always tries to get him to say it, and he never will!� said Madame Pilot under her breath.
“What?� mouthed the inland woman, with round, interested eyes.
The child spoke at that moment loudly and clearly.
“He will come back to-day!�
“Lord above! if he hasn’t said it!� cried Madame Pilot, and crossed herself under her ample cloak as the boy came running to her.
She caught his hand, and clattered on in her heavy wooden shoes, fighting her way resolutely against the wind, followed more slowly by the gaping inlander.