"I think you have told me enough, Nella," said Marietta wearily. "I am very tired."
"You cannot go to bed till I have plaited your hair," answered Nella mercilessly, but at the same time laying down the comb. "Just before you came in, I was looking out of the window. It was just an accident, for I was very busy with your things, of course. Well, as I was saying, in passing I happened to glance out of the window, and I saw—guess what I saw, my pretty lady!"
Marietta trembled, thinking that Nella had seen her, and perhaps recognised her, and was about to bring her garrulous tale to a dramatic climax by telling her so.
"Perhaps you saw a woman," she suggested desperately.
"A woman indeed!" cried Nella. "That must be a nice woman who would be seen in the street at such a time of night, and the Governor's archers there, too! Woman? I would not look at such a woman, I tell you! No. What I saw was this, since you cannot guess. There came two big men, running fast, and they were carrying a dead body between them! Eh! They were at no good, I tell you. One could see that."
Marietta could bear no more, now. She bent her head and bit her finger to keep herself from crying out.
"If you will not be still, how in the world am I to plait your hair?" asked Nella querulously.
"Do it quickly, please," Marietta succeeded in saying. "I am so very tired to-night."
Her head bent still further forward.
"Indeed," said Nella, much annoyed that her tale should not have been received with more interest, "you seem to be half asleep already."