Sue thought she'd surely caught the Imp that time. But the other only laughed.
"He only told me just what you said he told Louis—that it was one of the world's 'heroic martyrs.' I was teasing you girls into thinking I knew it all. You'd been pretty hateful to me just around that time."
"I thought as much!" said Sue. "But we'll forgive you now, if you'll tell us what you know. There can't be any harm in it, since we've discovered just what you have."
But the Imp wouldn't have been herself, if she had acted in a way like ordinary folks. She stood and thought it over for a moment, keeping them on tenter-hooks all the time. Then she remarked:
"No, I don't honestly think it would be keeping my promise, if I said a word to you about it. I'm going to keep that, whatever else I do. But I'll open the book at one picture before I go, and that's all the hint I'm going to give you." She took the book and laid it open at a certain place, and then dashed down the stairs before they had time to say another word.
The two girls almost fell over each other in their hurry to see what the picture was. It was a beautiful woman, and underneath it were the words, "Marie Antoinette."
"What in the world has she got to do with it?" demanded Sue. "Of course we all know who she was. Didn't she get killed, or something, in the French Revolution? But what has that to do with this dauphin?"
"Perhaps she was some relation," suggested Carol. "If she was the queen, maybe he was her son?"
"Tell you what!" Sue interrupted. "Let's go to the library to-morrow and hunt up some book on the French Revolution, or some other French history, and see if we can clear this thing up. I'm not going to wade through this book. It doesn't seem to say a thing about what we want to know."
Carol agreed that this seemed the best course to pursue. Plainly, it would be useless to consult "Madame Lebrun" any further. They took the green book that had given them its startling revelation and hid it safely in the desk. Then they turned to go. Suddenly Carol faced her friend.