“Yes, an ordinary princess–the common, every-day kind. But she was a princesse royale. And so he did this.” With a comprehensive gesture of both her hands she indicated the tapestries, paintings, busts, furniture, and the entire contents of the house.
“You mean he brought his own possessions off here, across the water?”
“Precisely.”
197“And did he bring the Princess with him?”
“What a question! It is evident, Mademoiselle, that you were not acquainted with my father, the Duc de Fontrévault.”
“Then this princess was your mother?”
“Yes.”
“And that is her grave out there, beneath the pines, next to his?”
The Princess nodded, and blinked, but smiled: “Poor mamma! She only lived a few years after that; I was nine when she died.”
“Were you born here?”