"Asleep already!" she said, "when I hear carriages rumbling through the streets and see the princess's palace shining yonder like a star? Oh! I cannot sleep! Our father made me promise to go to bed as usual, and not to go running about the palace with the other girls, to try to look at the fête through the open doors. So I went to bed, and although those violins, which you can hear from here, made my heart beat time, I was determined to go to sleep, when my friend Nenna came and asked me to go with her."
"And you mean to go, Mila? to disobey your father? to loiter about that house, which is all surrounded by servants, beggars and vagabonds, with a hare-brained creature like Nenna? You shall not do it, I forbid you!"
"Oh! you needn't put on those high and mighty paternal airs, my dear brother," retorted Mila, in an offended tone. "Do you suppose I am mad enough to listen to Nenna? I sent her away; she is a long way from here, and I was going to sleep again when I heard you walking about and talking. I thought father was with you; but I saw through the crack of the door that you were alone, and then ——"
"Then you came in here to chatter, in order to avoid going to sleep, eh?"
"It is true that I have no desire to go to bed so early, and father didn't forbid me to listen and look on from a distance at what is going on up there! Oh! how beautiful it must be! You can see much better from your window than from mine, Michel; do let me feast my eyes on that beautiful bright light!"
"No, little one. The wind is cool to-night, and you have almost no clothes on. I am going to shut the window and go to bed. Go and do the same; good-night."
"You are going to bed; and have just dressed yourself! what did you do it for, pray? Michel, you are deceiving me, you are going to see the ball, you are going in! I will bet that you are invited, and that you won't tell me so!"
"Invited! they don't invite people like us to such grand affairs, my poor dear! When we enter that palace, we go as workmen, not as friends."
"What difference does that make, so long as you're there? Then you are going? Oh! how I would like to be in your place!"
"Why, what is the meaning of this frantic desire to see this fête?"