Mme. Derize tried to smile.
"You came," she said, "to see me, to hear news of him."
"You are wrong. It was not right that you should be deprived of your grand-children's company on his account."
Then Albert's mother, who had exhausted the limit of her boldness, was silenced, when Elizabeth could no longer keep back her tears.
"My dear little girl, why are you crying?"
"I don't know. It is nervousness."
"I know it is, and I love you all the more for it. I shall always be with you. But why make your trouble harder to bear? Wait with perseverance, but with calmness. Occupy yourself with Marie Louise and Philippe. They are your reason for hope and you belong entirely to them at this time. Be busy, very busy. Fill your days. And pray."
"I no longer know how."
"Go back soon to Grenoble—I shall teach you. Good-by, my child. May God keep you."
The two women kissed each other. Elizabeth watched the jaunting-car which took Mme. Derize to Uriage, until it disappeared round a corner and was hidden by a chestnut tree.