"More than your father would. Where is Redcastle?"
"At Strasburg in the garrison; no, he has gone—oh, dear Philip!" continued the medium with sparkling eyes in joy. "I see him riding through a town I know. It is Nancy, where I was at the convent school. The torches round him light up his darling face."
"Why torches?" asked Balsamo in amaze.
"They are around him on horseback, and a handsome gilded carriage."
Balsamo appeared to have a guess at this, for he only said:
"Who is in the coach?"
"A lovely, graceful, majestic woman, but I seem to have seen her before—how strange! no, I am wrong—she looks like our Nicole; but as the lily is like the jessamine. She leans out of the coach window and beckons Philip to draw near. He takes his hat off with respect as she orders him, with a smile, to hurry on the horses. She says that the escort must be ready at six in the morning, as she wishes to take a rest in the daytime—oh, it is at Taverney that she means to stop. She wants to see my father! So grand a princess stop at our shabby house! What shall we do without linen or plate?"
"Be of good cheer. We will provide all that."
"Oh, thank you!"
The girl, who had partly risen, fell back in the chair, uttering a profound sigh.