"They are all warm now," she said.
"Let me see!"
She held him one and laughed. He ate it. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as she sucked at the fruit like a child. He did not know how the adventure would end. It is probable that she at least had some suspicion. She waited.
"Hi! Hi!" Voices in the woods.
"Hi! Hi!" she answered. "Ah! There they are!" she said to Christophe. "Not a bad thing, either!"
But on the contrary she was thinking that it was rather a pity. But speech was not given to woman for her to say what she is thinking…. Thank God! for there would be an end of morality on earth….
The voices came near. Her friends were near the road. She leaped the ditch, climbed the hedge, and hid behind the trees. He watched her in amazement. She signed to him imperiously to come to her. He followed her. She plunged into the depths of the wood.
"Hi! Hi!" she called once more when they had gone some distance. "You see, they must look for me!" she explained to Christophe.
Her friends had stopped on the road and were listening for her voice to mark where it came from. They answered her and in their turn entered the woods. But she did not wait for them. She turned about on right and on left. They bawled loudly after her. She let them, and then went and called in the opposite direction. At last they wearied of it, and, making sure that the best way of making her come was to give up seeking her, they called:
"Good-bye!" and went off singing.