Mrs. Mason laughed. “Come, Lizzette——” she began, but her words were interrupted by a simultaneous movement on the part of Margaret and Elsie. Margaret arose from her chair, and Elsie as quickly offered her arm, and the two were on the point of leaving the room when they were arrested by a whisper from Antoine, “Take me too. I can’t stay here.”
Elsie put her hand to Antoine’s chair, and in a profound silence the “funeral procession,” as Elsie called it, marched out of the room.
“Come, come, Lizzette,” exclaimed Mrs. Mason in English, when the door had closed. “I meant no offence, of course. You seem to have acquired an unusual dignity since I last saw you.”
“For zose who deserve it, oui; for Lizzette Minaud, non. I know ze ladies when I see zem, if so be zey are in calico or silk.”
“Oh, of course, of course,” replied Mrs. Mason somewhat impatiently. “Tell me who they are, anyway, and how they happen to be with you.”
“Helen Mason,” said Lizzette a little sternly, “if so be I did not know you nearly ze whole of your life, I nevair tell you von leetle word. But since I think vous avez ze heart under zat spoiled exterieur, I vill tell you ze story.”
Mrs. Mason laughed.
“The privilege of an old friend, Lizzette, is sometimes terribly abused; but I forgive you because of my impatience to hear this wonderful story. You’ve really aroused my curiosity.”
With all the eloquence of eye, voice, and gesture so characteristic of the French, Lizzette gave the details of Margaret’s struggles and misfortunes. The barren story lost nothing under the glow of Lizzette’s imagination and fertile tongue, and when she finished with a glowing peroration on the virtues of the little family, Mrs. Mason’s eyes required several applications of a dainty bit of embroidered gauze before they were restored to their pristine brightness.
“Very affecting indeed,” she declared. “It is singular how hard some people’s lives have to be, but it is fate, I suppose.” Mrs. Mason was evidently quite resigned to fate. “I declare,” she exclaimed, “listening to the story of the trials of these people, I had nearly forgotten my own. I am in the deepest trouble, Lizzette, and of course I had to come to you for help just as I used to do.”