"Why, what is the matter, Paul?" she cried: "are you sick?"
For Paul Solange had suddenly become so pale that Miette was scared.
"Not at all," said he; "not at all; but finish your story."
"It is finished."
"How?"
"Poor Monsieur Roger has never again seen his wife or his little George—or at least he saw his wife, whose body had been cast up by the waves, but the body of the little boy remained at the bottom of the sea."
After a silence, Miette added,—
"You now understand how it is that the fire at the farm recalled to him at once the fire on the ship, and why, in his grief, in his fright to see you in so great a danger, he thought of his little boy, and cried 'George!' You understand, don't you?"
Paul remained an instant without answering; then, very gravely, with a pale face and wide open eyes, he said,—
"I understand."