"Sitting by the window, looking at the lovely sky, she said to me one peaceful evening:
"'I shall soon be there, Denise.'
"'Oh, my lady!' was all I could say.
"'It rejoices me to think,' she said, 'that this long agony is coming to an end. I pray that the dear child I shall leave behind me will not suffer as I have suffered, that his life may be happy, and his end be peaceful. Denise, my mother is in that invisible spirit-land to which I am going. When she sees me coming, will she not be frightened to meet me? for, if it had not been for her, all this misery would have been averted.'
"'My lady,' I said--so saint-like was her appearance that I could have knelt to her, 'let me go to my master and bring him to you.'
"'He would not come,' she said, 'at your bidding, Denise. Has he not been often entreated by our child?'
"Believing that this was a sign of relenting on her part, I said:
"'He knows that I dare not deceive him. He will come if I say you sent for him.'
"'Perhaps, perhaps,' she said; 'but I would not have him come yet. When I summon him here he will not refuse me.'
"'You will send for him one day, my lady?'