mon Dieu!"

"What is it?"

"I felt a drop of rain, a big drop."

"Let's walk faster."

But they quickened their pace to no purpose: in a moment the storm burst; the rain fell in torrents and forced them to seek shelter under a huge tree whose dense foliage protected them almost entirely from the downpour.

"We are not lucky in our walks!" said Honorine; "I shall not leave our garden any more!"

"Nonsense! when it's over we forget all about it."

"Yes, but this one keeps on, and we are a long way from home! What an idea of yours to want to go to a place that is said to be dangerous!"

"Oho! it's your turn to be afraid now."

"Not of the thunder, at all events!"

"But the thunder is more dangerous than a cross set up in a ravine."

"Ah! what a flash! it was superb!"

"It was frightful!"

"I think the rain is subsiding a little."

"Let us go on."

"Mon Dieu! here comes the darkness now; suppose it should overtake us before we have found our way!"

"Let us walk, let us walk; we shall certainly meet someone who will tell us which way to go."

"Oh! how slippery the rain has made the road! We shall fall in a moment; that will be the last straw!"

"Let's take each other's arm, and hold on firmly."

The two friends walked on, laughing when they almost fell, shrieking with terror when the lightning flashes lighted up the surrounding country. The rain had almost ceased, but the night was coming on, and the farther they walked, the less familiar the road seemed to them.

At last they met a peasant woman driving an a.s.s before her; at sight of her they uttered a cry of delight.

"Madame! madame! which way to Ch.e.l.les, if you please?"

"Why, bless me! you're turning your backs to it!"

"Which way must we go, then?"

"See, take this path to the left; then turn to the left again and you'll come to Gournay; then----"

"Oh! we know the way after that, thanks!"

"And the cross in the ravine--are we far from that?"

"The cross in the ravine! Jesus, my Lord! you want to go to the cross in the ravine! at night! What in the world do you want to go there for?"

"From curiosity."

"The deuce! you must be mighty curious, then!"

"Is it dangerous to go by there?"

"Bless me! this much is sure, that n.o.body round here would want to go through the ravine at night. As soon as you get near it, you hear groans and complaints.--It's the dead man come back, for sure."

"I don't believe in ghosts myself."

"It's plain you don't belong round here. Well, if you take the road I told you, you're bound to pa.s.s, not through the ravine, but by one end of it. Good-night, mesdames."

"Will you let us take your a.s.s to return to Ch.e.l.les? we will pay whatever you choose."

"No, no; I don't let my a.s.s to folks who want to go to the dead man's cross! No, thank you! Besides, Julie wouldn't go, either; she'd balk.

Come, away with you, my poor Julie!"

And the peasant who gave her jenny the name of Julie went her way, driving the beast before her.

"We know our way now," said Honorine; "let's make haste, for it will soon be entirely dark."

"The thunder is still rumbling."

"That isn't what I am afraid of."

"Do you mean to say that you believe in that peasant woman's nonsense, and the groans that are heard in the ravine?"

"I'll tell you this, that when we pa.s.s the place, I shall run. Mon Dieu!

how dark it is!"

"Here we are on the main road, at all events. We must turn to the left again."

"I can hardly see, and I am beginning to be very tired."

"Oh! look, my dear, this narrow path between those two little hills must be the ravine."

"Well! perhaps you would like to go in there, to delay us still more?"

"Oh! I entreat you, just a minute, to see the cross. I don't know what is taking place in me, but it seems to me that I must go there, and--and pray for the unhappy man who met his death there."

"Why, Agathe, you are positively foolish! I am not willing to stop."

"Ah! listen! did you hear?"