And after that, as on that
other day when she kissed him after the fight, she was up and gone
so quickly that her name had scarcely left his lips when the door
closed behind her, and he heard her running down the hall.
He called after her, "Marie-Anne! Marie-Anne!"
He heard another door, and voices, and quick footsteps again,
coming his way, and he was waiting eagerly, half on his elbow,
when into his room came Nepapinas and Carmin Fanchet. And again he
saw the glory of something in the woman's face.
His eyes must have burned strangely as he stared at her, but it
did not change that light in her own, and her hands were
wonderfully gentle as she helped Nepapinas raise him so that he
was sitting up straight, with pillows at his back.
"It doesn't hurt so much now, does it?" she asked, her voice low
with a mothering tenderness.
He shook his head. "No. What is the matter?"
"You were burned--terribly. For two days and nights you were in
great pain, but for many hours you have been sleeping, and
Nepapinas says the burns will not hurt any more. If it had not
been for you--"
She bent over him. Her hand touched his face, and now he began to
understand the meaning of that glory shining in her eyes.
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