Her lips and
chin being visible, she could not conceal a quizzical smile that came
at my offer.
"Why not?" she said, motioning her servants back.
I caught her up in my arms and lifted her over the puddle. She slid from
my grasp with a slight laugh.
I sought some pretext to prolong this meeting. "When I came out
to-night," I said, "I dared not hope for such happiness as this."
"Nor did the astrologer predict anything of the kind to me," she replied.
From this I knew the cause of her being in the street so late,--a secret
visit to some fortune-teller. Then she called to the stout woman, who was
looking for a place to step over the pool. "Come, Isa, in the name of
Heaven. You know that if the guard is changed--"
She stopped, but she had already betrayed herself. She meant the guard of
the palace, doubtless; and that her secret entrance, so long after the
closing of the gates, depended for its ease on the presence of some
officer with whom she had an understanding. She must be one of the ladies
attached to the royal household, and her nocturnal excursion, from the
Louvre, was evidently clandestine.
Isa now joined her mistress, and the latter, with a mere, "I thank you,
monsieur," turned and hastened on her way. Soon the footsteps of her
attendants died out of hearing.
I had not even seen her face, save the white, curved chin and the
delicate mouth.
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