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78 "No, I swear to you. I ran to come. . . ."

He kissed her, saying that it was imprudent for either of them to talk any longer; and he wished to get back to the forest. She held him back. She was trembling.

"Listen, perhaps it would be as well for you to stay here, all the same. . . . Nobody is looking for you, you're not afraid of anything."

"Françoise, you are keeping something from me," he repeated.

Again she swore she was keeping nothing from him. Only she had rather know that he was near; and she stammered out other reasons besides. She struck him as acting so queerly, that now he himself would not have been willing to leave her. Besides, he believed the French would return. Troops had been seen over Sauval way.

"Ah! let them be in a hurry, let them be here as soon as possible!" he muttered fervently.

At this moment the Rocreuse church clock struck eleven. The strokes came clear and distinct. She sprang up in fright; it was two hours since she had left the mill.

"Listen," she said rapidly, "if we should need you, I will go up to my room and wave my handkerchief."

And she left him, running, while Dominique, very anxious, stretched himself out on the edge