"I beg your pardon, monsieur?" said Adamas, who had not a very clear understanding of his master's recently acquired knowledge, and indeed was somewhat disturbed about it; "I don't recognize milky voice[10] as a French expression."
"I will tell you about that another time," said the marquis yawning, for he was drowsing in front of the fire that crackled on the hearth. "Finish your story."
"Well, monsieur," Adamas continued, "this Moorish woman remained till last year in the Pyrenees mountains, where she watched the flocks for poor farmers; so that she continued to speak her Catalan patois, which people understand well enough on the other side of the mountains."
"And that explains to me how, with your Gascon patois, which is not very different from the mountain patois, you were able to talk Spanish with this woman."
"That is as monsieur pleases; all the same, I said many Spanish words which she understood perfectly.—And then I must tell you that she had a little child with her, who isn't her own child, but of whom she is as fond as a goat of her kid, and the pretty little lad, whose mind is bigger than his body, speaks French as well as you and I. Now, monsieur, this Moorish woman, whose name in French is Mercedes——"
"Mercedes is a Spanish name!" said the marquis, climbing into his great bed with Adamas's aid.
"I meant to say that it was a Christian name," continued the servant. "Six months ago, Mercedes took it into her head to go and find Monsieur de Rosny, whom she had heard spoken of as the late king's right arm, and who, she had been told, although he was in disgrace, was still powerful because of his wealth and his virtue. So she started for Poitou, where she was told Monsieur de Sully lived. Aren't you surprised, monsieur, at the resolution of such a poor, ignorant woman, to travel across half of France, on foot, with only a little child who is hardly ten years old, with the idea of calling on such an exalted personage?"
"But you don't tell me what this woman's reason was for acting thus?"
"That is the wonderful part of the story, monsieur! What can it be, do you think?"
"I could never guess! tell me at once, for it is late."