"The wedding will be deferred for a week, that's all."
He became serious, however, upon noticing that her dejection did not pass away.
"But what is the matter? You are concealing something from me."
"No, I give you my word I am not. I am tired; I ran all the way here."
He kissed her, saying it was imprudent for them both to remain there longer, and was about to climb out of the ditch in order to return to the forest. She stopped him; she was trembling violently.
"Listen, Dominique; perhaps it will be as well for you to remain here, after all. There is no one looking for you, you have nothing to fear."
"Françoise, you are concealing something from me," he said again.
Again she protested that she was concealing nothing. She only liked to know that he was near her. And there were other reasons still that she gave in stammering accents. Her manner was so strange that no consideration could now have induced him to go away. He believed, moreover, that the French would return presently. Troops had been seen over toward Sauval.
"Ah! let them make haste; let them come as quickly as possible," she murmured fervently.
At that moment the clock of the church at Rocreuse struck eleven; the strokes reached them, clear and distinct. She arose in terror; it was two hours since she had left the mill.
"Listen," she said, with feverish rapidity, "should
