At last, when the five had started down the hill accompanied
by Giovanni, Maria heard Noemi calling her:
"Maria! Maria!"
A peculiar note in her sister's voice told her something had happened.
She ran back, and found Signora Dessalle seated on a bundle of fagots,
in the corner where the gardener from Santa Scolastica had stood, not
five minutes before, and repeating in a weak voice: "It is nothing,
nothing, nothing! We will go in directly, we will go in directly!"
Noemi, greatly agitated, explained that her friend had suddenly felt
faint while those gentlemen were talking, and that she had with
difficulty been able to drag her as far as the bundle of fagots.
"Let us go in, let us go in," Jeanne repeated, and rising with an
effort, dragged herself as far as the villa, supported by her two
friends. She sat down on the steps waiting for some water, of which
she took only a sip. She would have nothing else, and was presently
sufficiently restored to ascend the stairs very, very slowly. She
apologised at each halt, and smiled, but the maid who, walking
backwards, led the way with the light nearly fainted herself, at sight
of those dazed eyes, those white lips, and that terrible pallor.
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