the child's hurts were not so grave, after all.
"he may sit up to-morrow," the doctor said. the fractured arm was put into a splint and sling, and a collar-bone had to be wrapped in place; but the absorbent cotton bandaged on his head was only for contusions.
"corinne!" mlle. yvonne gasped, "contusion"! ah, doctor, i 'ope tha'z something you can't 'ave but once!"
"you can't in fatal cases. mrs.--eh--those scissors, please? thank you."
"well, aline, praise be to heaven, any'ow his skull, from ear to ear 'tis solid! ah, i mean, of co'se, roun' the h-outside. inside 'tis hollow. but outside it has not a crack! eh, doctor?"
"except the sutures he was born with. now, my little man----"
"ah, ah, corinne! born with shuture'! and we never suzpeg' that!"
"ah, but, yvonne, if he's had those sinz' that long they cann' be so very fatal, no!"
partly for the little boy's sake three days were let pass before aline made her announcement. there was but one place for it--the castanados' parlor. all the coterie were there--the de l'isles, even ovide--butler pro tem.
"you will have refreshments," he said, with happiest equanimity; "i will serve them"; and the whole race problem vanished. mélanie too was present, with an announcement of her own which won ecstatic kisses, many of them tear-moistened but all of them glad. as for mme. alexandre and beloiseau, they announced nothing, but every one knew, and said so in the smiling fervency of their hand-grasps.
all of which made the evening too hopelessly old-fashioned to be dwelt on, though one point cannot be overlooked. it was the last proclamation of the joyous hour, and was chester's. he had bought--on wonderfully easy terms--vieux carré terms--the large house and grounds opposite the chapdelaine cottage, and there the aunts were to dwell with the young pair.
"permanently?"
"ah, only whiles we live!"
the coterie adjourned.
already the sisters had begun to move in. mrs. chester helped them "marvellouzly." also aline. also cupid--that was now his only name. the cat really couldn't; she was too preoccupied. the sisters touched mrs. chester's arm and drew a curtain.
"look! . . . eight! ah, thou unfaithful, if we had ever think you are going to so forget yo'seff like that, we woul'n' never name you marie madeleine! and still ad the same time you know, mrs. chezter, we are sure she's trying to tell us, right now, that this going to be the laz' time!"
"and me," yvonne added, "i feel sure any'ow that, as the poet say--i'm prittie sure 'tis the poet say that--she's mo' sin' ag-ainz' than sinning."
at length one evening so many relics of the chapdelaine infancy had been gathered in the new home that the sisters went over there to pass the night, and took puss and her offspring along. but not a wink did either of them sleep the night through, and the first living creature they espied the next morning was marie madeleine, with a kitten in her teeth, moving back.
"aline," they sobbed as soon as they could find her, "we are sorry, sorry, sorry, to make you such unhappinezz like that, and so soon; continue, you and geoffry, to live in that new 'ouse; but whiles we live any plaze but heaven we got to live in that home of our in-fancy."
