He looked so woebegone that her heat went out to him, but she only laughed gaily.
"You'll not be rid of me so easily, Monsieur. I'm not going, do you hear?"
He shrugged and smiled.
"There!" she smiled. "I knew you wouldn't refuse me. You're an angel,
Philidor, and I shall reward you."
She touched Père Guégou's blossom to her lips, then put it deftly into the lapel of his coat.
"It is the Order of the Golden Rose, mon ami, and its motto is Sincere et Constanter. You will remember that motto, Philidor, and however mad, however inconsistent or incomprehensible I may be, know that I am bound to you, apprenticed to learn the trade of living and that not until you send me away will I ever leave you."
He smiled and lifted the blossom to his lips.
"Friendship?" he asked.
"Yes, that always—whatever else—"
She stopped suddenly as his eyes eagerly alight sought her face, and then turning quickly she fled to the kitchen of Mère Guégou and upstairs away from him.