Page:Villette.djvu/272

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VASHTI.
265

"An Englishman. And I speak to a countryman?" was the reply.

"Right. Be good enough to stand here two minutes, whilst I find my carriage".

"Papa, I am not hurt", said a girlish voice; "am I with papa?"

"You are with a friend, and your father is close at hand".

"Tell him I am not hurt, except just in my shoulder. Oh, my shoulder! They trode just here".

"Dislocation, perhaps!" muttered the Doctor: "let us hope there is no worse injury done. Lucy, lend a hand one instant".

And I assisted while he made some arrangement of drapery and position for the ease of his suffering burden. She suppressed a moan, and lay in his arms quietly and patiently.

"She is very light", said Graham, "like a child!" and he asked in my ear, "Is she a child, Lucy? Did you notice her age?"

"I am not a child—I am a person of seventeen", responded the patient demurely and with dignity. Then, directly after:

"Tell papa to come; I get anxious".

The carriage drove up; her father relieved Graham; but in the exchange from one bearer to another she was hurt, and moaned again.

"My darling!" said the father, tenderly; then turning to Graham, "You said, sir, you are a medical man?"

"I am: Dr. Bretton, of La Terrasse".

"Good. Will you step into my carriage?"

"My own carriage is here; I will seek it, and accompany you".

"Be pleased, then, to follow us". And he named his address: "The Hôtel Crécy, in the Rue Crécy".

We followed; the carriage drove fast; myself and Graham were silent. This seemed like an adventure.

Some little time being lost in seeking our own equipage, we reached the hotel, perhaps, about ten minutes after these strangers. It was an hotel in the foreign sense: a collection of dwelling-houses, not an inn—a vast, lofty pile, with a huge arch to its street-door, leading through a vaulted covered way, into a square all built round.

We alighted, passed up a wide, handsome public staircase, and stopped at Numéro 2 on the second landing; the first