He wanted to dart out of the house, but the baron had closed the other doors as he came along. He was forced to take refuge in Nicole’s room.
From there he saw her hurry in to her mistress, assist her to bed and retire, after a short chat, in which she displayed all the fawning of a maid who wishes to win her forgiveness for delinquency.
Singing to make her peace of mind be believed, she was going through on the way to the garden when Gilbert showed himself in a moonbeam.
She was going to scream but taking him for another, she said, conquering her fright:
“Oh, it is you—what rashness!”
“Yes, it is I—but do not scream any louder for me than the other,” said Gilbert.
“Why, whatever are you doing here?” she challenged, knowing her fellow-dependent at Taverney. “But I guess—you are still after my mistress. But though you love her, she does not care for you.”
“Really?”
“Mind that I do not expose you and have you thrown out,” she said in a threatening tone.
“One may be thrown out, but it will be Nicole to whom stones are tossed over the wall.”