IV
When, ten minutes or so later, Nicolle came back, shame-faced, remorseful and not a little frightened, she was surprised and delighted to find her young mistress sitting quite composedly in a high-backed chair in the centre of the room, the window closed, and the lady herself quite eager to go to bed.
'Thou hast been gone a long time, Colle,' said the young girl carelessly. 'Where hast thou been?'
Old Colle sighed with relief. The Lord be praised! Madame had evidently seen and heard nothing of that vulgar scuffle which had ended in such disaster for poor Pierre, and in such a triumph for the impudent rascal who had since disappeared just as quickly as he came.
'I just went round to see that those wenches were all abed and that their lights were safely out,' replied the old woman with brazen hypocrisy.
'And didst speak to Pierre on the way?' queried Jacqueline, who had assumed the quaintest possible air of simple ingenuousness.
'Aye!' replied the old woman dryly. 'I spoke to Pierre.'
'What did he say?'
'Nothing of importance. We talked of to-morrow's banquet.'
'To-morrow's banquet?'