raversed my hand, but it came out through my back. It is useless to remove me from this spot.
I will tell you how you can care for me better than any surgeon.
Sit down near me on this stone."
He obeyed; she laid her head on Marius'' knees, and, without looking at him, she said:--
"Oh!
How good this is!
How comfortable this is!
There; I no longer suffer."
She remained silent for a moment, then she turned her face with an effort, and looked at Marius.
"Do you know what, Monsieur Marius?
It puzzled me because you entered that garden; it was stupid, because it was I who showed you that house; and then, I ought to have said to myself that a young man like you--"
She paused, and overstepping the sombre transitions that undoubtedly existed in her mind, she resumed with a heartrending smile:--
"You thought me ugly, didn''t you?"
She continued:--
"You see, you are lost!
Now, no one can get out of the barricade. It was I who led you here, by the way!
You are going to die, I count upon that.
And yet, when I saw them taking aim at you, I put my hand on the muzzle of the gun.
How queer it is!
But it was because I wanted to die before you.
When I received that bullet, I dragged myself here, no one saw me, no one picked me up, I was waiting for you, I said:
`So he is not coming!''