D'RI AND I
105
bathing done, they bound me big with bandages and left the room until the butler had helped me into bed. They came soon with spirits and bathed my face and hands. One leaned over me, whispering, and asking what I would like to eat. Directly a team of horses came prancing to the door.
"The colonel!" one of them whispered, listening.
"The colonel, upon my soul!" said the other, that sprightly Louison, as she tiptoed to the window. They used to call her "Tiptoes" at the Hermitage.
The colonel! I remembered she was none other than the Baroness de Ferré; and thinking of her and of the grateful feeling of the sheets of soft linen, I fell asleep.
