Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 2.djvu/250

226 Lydia's arm, but Colomba instantly pushed him away.

"Let none of you dare to lay a finger on her!" she said. "Do you fancy we want to run away? Come, Lydia, my dear, lean on me, and don't cry like a baby. We've had an adventure, but it will end all right. In half an hour we shall be at our supper, and for my part I'm dying to get to it."

"What will they think of me!" Miss Nevil whispered.

"They'll think you lost your way in the mâquis, that's all."

"What will the prefect say? Above all, what will my father say?"

"The prefect? You can tell him to mind his own business! Your father? I should have thought, from the way you and Orso were talking, that you had something to say to your father."

Miss Nevil squeezed her arm, and answered nothing.

"Doesn't my brother deserve to be loved?" whispered Colomba in her ear. "Don't you love him a little?"

"Oh, Colomba!" answered Miss Nevil, smiling in spite of her blushes, "you've betrayed me! And I trusted you so!"