t any rate, she is a peasant.
Now, I am really concerned at this exposure for a person of your
housekeeping habits; my solicitude and your fantastic modesty both point
to the same remedy--the pantaloons." He held them ready.

"It is impossible. You do not understand," she said with dignity.

By this time rescue was at hand. It had been found impracticable to enter
by the street, for the gate was blocked with masonry, and the nodding
ruin still threatened further avalanches. But between the Doctor's garden
and the one on the right hand there was that very picturesque
contrivance--a common well; the door on the Desprez side had chanced to
be unbolted, and now, through the arched aperture, a man's bearded face
and an arm supporting a lantern were introduced into the world of windy
darkness, where Anastasie concealed her woes. The light struck here and
there among the tossing apple boughs, it glinted on the grass; but the
lantern and the glowing face became the centre of the world. Anastasie
crouched back from the intrusion.

"This way!" shouted the man. "Are you all safe?"

Aline, still screaming, ran to the new-comer, and was presently hauled
head-foremost through the wall.

"Now, Anastasie, come on; it is your turn," said the husband.

"I cannot," she replied.

"Are we all to die of exposure, madame?" thundered Doctor Desprez.

"You can go!" she cried. "Oh, go, go away! I can stay here; I am quite
warm."

The Doctor took her by the shoulders with an oath.

"Stop!" she screamed. "I will put them on."

She took the detested lendings in her hand once more; but her repulsion
was stronger than shame. "Never!" she cried, shuddering, and flung them
far away into the night.

Next moment the Doctor had whirled her to the well. The man was there,
and the lantern; Anastasie closed her eyes and appeared to herself to be
about to die. How she was transported through the arch she knew not; but
once on the other side she was received by the neighbour's wife, and
enveloped in a friendly blanket.

Beds were made ready for the two women, clothes of very various sizes for
the Doctor and Jean-Marie; and for the remainder of the night, while
madame dozed in and out on the borderland of hysterics, her husband sat
beside the fire and held forth to the admiring neighbours. He showed
them, at length, the causes of the accident; for years, he explained, the
fall had been impending; one sign had followed another: the joints had
ope