"It shall be for nothing this time," said Margot.
"Ah, thou little shop-keeper!" exclaimed Matilda, "thou little adorable one!"
"Call me not shop-keeper, please. I am Comtesse St. Juste. Now lie still and I will get up and dress. Louise, see, has a message been sent to la Princesse de Fleury?"
"Ah, mais oui, Comtesse!" replied Louise.
"Then I will dress. I will wear my coral frock, and thou must get a white frock of mine and undergarments for mademoiselle. Vite, vite, Louise! Mademoiselle wants to get up."
"I don't. I want to stay here forever," said Matilda, yawning not a little.
"Thou lazy one," said Margot, "thou must be returned to the school."
Louise went out of the room to return with the information that the bath was hot and ready for both les petites. Then the two children were dressed in Margot's clothes and Matilda flung her arms round Margot's neck and said,
"Oh, but behold me of the most miserable! I am English and I do not like a French school, and I have a stepmother and I love her not, and my father is harsh and cruel. Will you not pity me, Margot? When the time comes for you to leave this so-called beautiful country of France, may I not come, too? I am learning to be a very bad girl at the school and I was always a bad girl at home, because of my stepmother and my harsh cruel father. Could you not get me to that castle of yours in beautiful Ireland? If I lived for even three or four weeks with you I might turn good, I might indeed."
"I can't say," replied Margot, "I must think. There, thou art dressed and my clothes suit thee better than thine own. Hold thy head erect. See, I will dry thy hair and I will go now, this very minute, and speak to Madame, ma belle grand'mère, about a chapeau for thee."