Bertran did most of the talking at supper. He tried to make Marie Josephine quarrel with him, but she did not seem to mind his teasing as she generally did. She despised Bertran. He was fourteen and yet he did nothing but ride and dance. Ah, if only he were a brave knight who could go to Paris and help Lisle! There was instead only little Jean. Her heart warmed toward Jean as she sat next to Cécile in the long drawing-room after supper. She watched Neville as he went about lighting the candles. He was dressed in the scarlet and white livery of the old Paris days and his white wig was tied back with a black ribbon. She had asked him again and again to tell her all that he knew. He had assured her, with all honesty, that he had left her mother and Lisle safe and well at the Paris house, and that there was no need for her to be alarmed. But she knew that he did not believe that they were not in danger, and she guessed that he was thankful that Dian had gone to them.
Marie Josephine put her head against Cécile’s shoulder and looked into the fire with half-closed eyes. Denise was singing at the old spinnet and Bertran was trying to join in, but his voice sounded as though any moment it would crack. It was an old country song and there was something plaintive and charming about it.
“Bergère legère, je crains tes appas,
Mon ame s’enflame, mais tu n’aimes pas!”
Le Pont thought of her only as a naughty little girl. Dear Cécile, her heart was sad; yet she could do nothing but work on her tapestry and pray for her loved ones who were in peril. But she, Marie Josephine, was going away alone to a great city, into the heart of a revolution! She was going in the spring!
Chapter XIV
WHAT LISLE PUT IN THE CAKE
“Tell me some more, please. See, I will blow the fire and make a blaze.” Vivi spoke pleadingly, as she picked up some pieces of a broken basket and put them on the low fire in the tiny, rusty grate.
“You tell me something, Vivi. I’ve talked and talked, and now I want to know about you. Have you always lived here in the alley? Let’s sit close together to keep warm, and let’s talk.”
Rosanne drew the velvet table cover close about them and they hitched the cot as near the fire as they could without getting up.