That the time would ever come when her glad laughter would
be hushed, when her young heart would beat no more, when the bright,
abundant, passionate blood would bound no longer through her veins, when
all the vivacious, vivid, sensuous charms of living would be ended for
her forever, was a thing that she could no better bring home to her than
a bird that sings in the light of the sun could be made to know that
the time would come when its little, melodious throat would be frozen in
death, and give song never more.
The tone touched him--made him think less and less of her as a
dare-devil boy, as a reckless child-soldier, and more of her as what she
was, than he had done before; he touched her almost caressingly.
"Pauvre enfant! I hope that day will be very distant from you. And
yet--how bravely you risked death for me just now!"
Cigarette, though accustomed to the lawless loves of the camp, flushed
ever so slightly at the mere caress of his hand.
"I risked nothing!" she said rapidly. "As for death--when it comes, it
comes. Every soldier carries it in his wallet, and it may jump out on
him any minute. I would rather die young than grow old. Age is nothing
else but death that is conscious."
"Where do you get your wisdom, little one?"
"Wisdom? Bah! living is learning. Some people go through life with their
eyes shut, and then grumble there is nothing to see in it! Well--you
want that Arab buried? What a fancy! Look you, then; stay by him, since
you are so fond of him, and I will go and send some men to you with a
stretcher to carry him down to the town.
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