“He communicates with me; but I never answer. Now I will do so, and perhaps thou shalt not die.”

“Carinne.”

“Hush, thou small citizen! The time is up; we must talk no longer.”

I breathed all my heart out in a sigh of farewell. I thought she had already gone, when suddenly she spoke again—

“Jean-Louis, Jean-Louis, do you hear?”

“Yes.”

“I would have thee just the height for thine eyes to look into mine.”

“Carinne? And what should they read there?”

Again there was a pause, again I thought she had gone; and then once more her voice came to me—

“Little Thibaut, I did kiss the wall a foot above the trap.”