"Come!" he said gruffly. "Something must be done at once, for I cannot
go to bed with this affair on my mind--I have an idea."
In the front room Melanie and Phrosine were talking eagerly in low
voices. When the widow saw the two men leaving the divan she moved
toward Burle and said coaxingly: "What, are you going already, Captain?"
"Yes, he's going," brutally answered Laguitte, "and I don't intend to
let him set foot here again."
The little maid felt frightened and pulled her mistress back by the
skirt of her dress; in doing so she imprudently murmured the word
"drunkard" and thereby brought down the slap which the major's hand
had been itching to deal for some time past. Both women having stooped,
however, the blow only fell on Phrosine's back hair, flattening her cap
and breaking her comb. The domino players were indignant.
"Let's cut it," shouted Laguitte, and he pushed Burle on the pavement.
"If I remained I should smash everyone in the place."
To cross the square they had to wade up to their ankles in mud. The
rain, driven by the wind, poured off their faces. The captain walked on
in silence, while the major kept on reproaching him with his cowardice
and its disastrous consequences.
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