Then noticing that Eugenia’s eyes were studying her gravely, Barbara shook her head and laughed.
“I have a perfectly delicious piece of gossip to confide, if you will all listen. If you don’t I’m going to bed this minute.”
Nona sealed her letter.
“What on earth are you talking about, Barbara?” she demanded. “How can you have heard any more gossip than the rest of us? You can’t have found a lost will or a lost romance in that old book you dug out of the attic.”
Having at last gained the desired attention of her audience, the youngest of the four Red Cross girls was not disposed to hurry.
“Well, no, not exactly,” she hedged. “And yet I have been amusing myself fitting the two stories together. Remember the young girl we saw dancing for the soldiers the other afternoon?”
“Goodness, yes,” Eugenia replied. “But what a surprising person you are, Barbara. She is about the last person in the world I would have guessed you had in mind. What on earth made you think of her again?”
Holding up three fingers, Barbara counted them out slowly. “One, two, three things made me think of her. Now listen to me attentively, for ‘hereby hangs a tale.’ And perhaps if we exercise enough imagination we can turn it into the oldest romance of the Troubadours, those poets of old Provence whose names stand high in the records of song and story. Remember the tale of ‘Aucassin and Nicolete’ is over seven hundred years old! We may have to make a few changes to fit it into modern times.”
Mildred Thornton made no effort to stifle her yawn.
“Oh, goodness gracious, do go on and get to your story or I shall retire to bed. At least I remember that the blond young soldier told you the little dancing girl’s name was Nicolete. It was odd for you to come across the poem so unexpectedly tonight. I read it long ago in my literature class at school. But where, please, is ‘Aucassin,’ the hero of your tale, and where, for that matter, is Nicolete? You told me that she was supposed to disappear after her dance and no one knew what had become of her,” Mildred protested.