Her wraps were sadly insufficient to protect
her properly from such extreme cold as they were exposed to then, and
de Sigognac, who was sitting beside her, insisted upon sharing his cloak
with her--though she protested against his depriving himself of so
much of it--and beneath its friendly shelter gently drew her slender,
shrinking form close to himself, so as to impart some of his own vital
warmth to her. She could feel the quickened beating of his heart as he
held her respectfully, yet firmly and tenderly, embraced, and he was
soon rewarded for his loving care by seeing the colour return to her
pale lips, the happy light to her sweet eyes, and even a faint flush
appear on her delicate cheeks.
While they were eating--or rather making believe to eat their
make-believe breakfast--a singular noise was heard near by, to which
at first they paid no particular attention, thinking it was the wind
whistling through the matted branches of the thicket, if they thought of
it at all; but presently it grew louder, and they could not imagine what
it proceeded from. It was a sort of hissing sound, at once shrill and
hoarse, quite impossible to describe accurately.
As it grew louder and louder, and seemed to be approaching them, the
women manifested some alarm.
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