That was as bad as it could be; yet there was this to the good, that
it was to-morrow and not to-day; and who could tell what might happen
between to-day and to-morrow!
A moment later the three were standing outside the office in the street.
As Jean Jacques climbed into his red wagon, Virginie Poucette's eyes were
attracted to the northern sky where a reddish glow appeared, and she gave
an exclamation of surprise.
"That must be a fire," she said, pointing.
"A bit of pine-land probably," said M. Fille--with anxiety, however, for
the red glow lay in the direction of St. Saviour's where were the Manor
Cartier and Jean Jacques' mills. Maitre Fille was possessed of a
superstition that all the things which threaten a man's life to wreck it,
operate awhile in their many fields before they converge like an army in
one field to deliver the last attack on their victim. It would not have
seemed strange to him, if out of the night a voice of the unseen had said
that the glow in the sky came from the Manor Cartier. This very day three
things had smitten Jean Jacques, and, if three, why not four or five, or
fifty!
With a strange fascination Jean Jacques' eyes were fastened on the glow.
He clucked to his horses, and they started jerkily away. M. Fille and the
widow Poucette said good-bye to him, but he did not hear, or if he heard,
he did not heed.
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