“O Clement! how can I do without her?—I love her so much!—I love her so much!—”
Clement hid his face in the child's long curls, pressed her in his arms, and kissed her affectionately, but he could not succeed in calming her till he promised that Gabrielle should return, and that he would bring her back. At this assurance, the child's tears ceased to flow, she became quiet, and remained serious and thoughtful in her brother's arms.
All at once Mademoiselle Josephine broke her long silence: “Siberia is a great way off, is it not?” said she.
A general smile accompanied the reply to this question, which was the first-fruit of the elderly maiden's prolonged deliberations.
“And is Clement going to Siberia, also?”
“No; he is going to St. Petersburg.”
“And how far is to St. Petersburg?”
They replied by giving her a full account of the way Fleurange would take to reach the end of her first journey. Being enlightened on this point, mademoiselle relapsed into her former silence, but not for a long time. A new idea suddenly occurred to her. She snatched off her glasses hastily.
“But those two children cannot travel all alone!” she exclaimed.
Madame Dornthal and Fleurange looked up, and Clement gave a start which disturbed the sleep into which Frida had fallen: every one became attentive.