“Yes, yes, I know. I will remember, but be quick, child.” Maman put her hand on the door, and Marie Josephine stepped back into the hall, keeping close to the wall. There was only silence, except for the voices from the halls below.
Marie Josephine never forgot the breathless flight through the familiar back halls of the great house. In spite of the tense excitement she thought how funny it was that she knew the halls so well, and maman knew them not at all! Roaming about houses had always been one of Marie Josephine’s chief delights!
She tried to remember what Dian had told her: “Do not let fear keep you from doing what is right. Fear has no power.” She said this over and over under her breath as they went out the side door into the garden, and found themselves facing the grey wall that surrounded it. There were voices near by. She fumbled with the lock. It was rusty, and the garden door was a little swollen from recent spring rains. It did not give.
“Hurry, child!” Maman’s voice sounded in her ears. She stood quietly with the key in her hands for a moment, trying to still the agony of fear that seemed to beat about her. “Fear has no power,” Dian had said. She felt a sudden freedom. She was doing right. She put the key in the lock again and turned it quickly. The door caught, moved a breath, then caught again. At last it gave! They were outside in a deserted long, grey street. Maman turned to her, and even in that moment of still great danger, put her arm around her.
“You have done me good service, little one. I have children whom I shall see very soon. They are safe out of Paris, a son and two daughters. You—there is something about you a little like one of them. God bless you.”
They had been given their directions. Maman was off, walking quickly in the direction of the Place de la Bastille, not daring to run. Marie Josephine watched her until she had almost disappeared.
“There is something about you a little like one of them!”
The words stayed with her as she ran on toward the rue Royale. When she reached the crowded streets she slackened her steps. She was to go at once to the Saint Frère house and to wait there with the others for Dian.