A tall, dark young woman served them with good soup, an excellent omelette, and some grapes, at a table covered with a clean, white cloth, on the greensward facing the forest. She stayed by while they ate, asking with a curtsy every now and then, if there was anything more that they wished, or anything special that she could procure for them. She was particularly kind to Flambeau, cutting his meat nicely and putting it in a blue saucer by the lunch table. Marie Josephine was so pleased at this that she went up to the woman after they had finished lunch and said:
“Flambeau wants to thank you for his déjeuner. He is very tired of the journey and will be glad when we are home at Les Vignes.”
The young woman, who had said her name was Paulette, smiled kindly and seemed interested.
“Pigeon Valley is indeed beautiful, Little Mademoiselle. The other young ladies, are they your sisters?”
“A sister and a cousin and a friend.” Marie Josephine smiled happily at the dark woman who was patting Flambeau’s head.
Just at that moment Bertran du Monde came galloping up to the queer mill-inn, with his servant riding behind him.
“The young gentleman would be your brother I suppose, little lady?” the woman asked as she turned toward the inn.
“That boy is not my brother. My brother is in Paris with maman,” Marie Josephine answered a little indignantly, but the woman was walking away and did not seem to have heard her. Marie Josephine was not used to speaking to strangers, but the dark young woman had been very kind to Flambeau.
Bertran was very hungry and he was cross because he had to wait for his omelette. He was a very fat boy indeed, but he rode well and was not in the least tired. When Madame le Pont suggested his coming into the coach for a while and letting his servant lead his horse, he said, “Ride in the stuffy coach and hear the girls chattering! No, I will not, Madame!”
They left him sitting at the table, waited on by his servant. A stone in his horse’s shoe had been the cause of their arriving after the others. It was thought best for the coach to start on as it could not make such good time, and so they waved their hands at Bertran and rumbled on toward the forest. Two people in the coach did not wave. They were Madame le Pont and Marie Josephine. The latter was more than ever out of sorts with Bertran. It had come over her suddenly that it was indeed Bertran and not Lisle who was with them. So, when he had answered Madame about the coach, she had said to him, “It is not you we want in the coach, Bertran. It is some one else.” He had answered, sitting down at his déjeuner as he spoke: