drooping a little over his saddle
"No; she should make him a colonel with her own dear hand. He putthem in his pocket. He would not even look at them till she hadseen them. Oh, how happy he was not only to come back to her alive,but to come back to her honored."His wound smarted, his limbs ached, but no pain past or presentcould lay hold of his mind. In his great joy he remembered pastsuffering and felt present pain–yet smiled. Only every now andthen he pined for wings to shorten the weary road.
He was walking his horse quietly, drooping a little over his saddle,when another officer well mounted came after him and passed him at ahand gallop with one hasty glance at his uniform, and went tearingon like one riding for his life.
"Don’t I know that face?" said Dujardin.
He cudgelled his memory, and at last he remembered it was the faceof an old comrade. At least it strongly reminded him of one JeanRaynal who had saved his life in the Arno, when they were lieutenantstogether.
Yes, it was certainly Raynal, only bronzed by service in some hotcountry.
"Ah!" thought Camille; "I suppose I am more changed than he is; forhe certainly did not recognize me at all. Now I wonder what thatfellow has been doing all this time. What a hurry he was in! amoment more and I should have hailed him. Perhaps I may fall inwith him at the next town."He touched his horse with the spur, and cantered gently on, fortrotting shook him more than he could bear. Even when he canteredhe had to press his hand against his bosom, and often with themotion a bitterer pang than usual came and forced the water from hiseyes; and then he smiled. His great love and his high courage madethis reply to the body’s anguish. And still his eyes lookedstraight forward as at some object in the distant horizon, while hecame gently on, his hand pressed to his bosom, his head drooping nowand then, smiling patiently, upon the road to Beaurepaire.
Oh! if anybody had told him that in five days his Josephine was tobe married; and that the bronzed comrade, who had just galloped pasthim, was to marry her!
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