"
He put his arm around her, for she stumbled blindly. They went across the
road as he had said, and halted under the trees on the farther side.
There followed a pause--an interval that was terrible--during which only
the low crying of an animal in pain was audible.
Bertrand stood like a rock, still holding her. "But you will not look,
_cherie_," he whispered to her softly. "It is deliverance--this death.
Soon--soon he will not cry any more."
She pressed her face against his shoulder, wrapped in the close security
of his arms, and waited, drawing each breath with difficulty, saying no
word.
She did not know what was happening, and she dared not look. She could
only wait in anguish for the whimpering that tore her heart to cease.
"Now, _cherie_!" whispered Bertrand at last, and she stiffened in his
arms, preparing for she knew not what.
His hold tightened. For that instant he pressed her hard against his
heart, so that she heard its quick beating.
The next there came a loud report--a sound that violently rent her
stretched nerves, shattering them as glass is shattered by a stone.
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