"
Then they drank noisily. Everybody smiled. But Pere Merlier, again
lifting his voice, exclaimed:
"Dominique, embrace your fiancee. It is your right."
They embraced, blushing to the tips of their ears, while all the guests
laughed joyously. It was a genuine fete. They emptied a small cask of
wine. Then when all were gone but intimate friends the conversation was
carried on without noise. The night had fallen, a starry and cloudless
night. Dominique and Francoise, seated side by side on a bench, said
nothing.
An old peasant spoke of the war the emperor had declared against
Prussia. All the village lads had already departed. On the preceding day
troops had again passed through the place. There was going to be hard
fighting.
"Bah!" said Pere Merlier with the selfishness of a happy man. "Dominique
is a foreigner; he will not go to the war. And if the Prussians come
here he will be on hand to defend his wife!"
The idea that the Prussians might come there seemed a good joke. They
were going to receive a sound whipping, and the affair would soon be
over.
"I have afready seen them; I have already seen them," repeated the old
peasant in a hollow voice.
There was silence. Then they drank again.
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