“I am not fine, and I am not true,” said Carola. “There is no paint on my face now, and you must see I am a very common creature, Monsieur le Marquis.”
Luc’s hand was so slack on the bridle that his horse began cropping the thin blades of grass that sprouted between the dead leaves.
“Give me the child,” said the Countess.
The day was quite bright now; fields of emerald, skies of pale azure, trees of faint gold were about them as he raised his burden to her saddle. The purple velvet trailed over the wet sides of her white horse; he flung across his own holster the coarse striped mantle, and mounted.
“These nuns,” she said, “are very good. They had, three years ago, when the plague was bad, a hundred people in their hospice.”
Luc offered to take the mummer’s child from her, but she refused. They rode from the fields on to the flat, muddy grey road. The horses were weary, and Carola, using only one hand, rode awkwardly. They went slowly across a country that was wet, glimmering, and silent.
Luc’s thoughts began to stir like waking birds, first shivering, then mounting into the circle of the sunlight. All disturbing pictures of the past vanished from his mind; he only saw the future, an ineffable blaze of glory. He spoke aloud, lifting his face to the fragrant early heavens.
“Whatever happens, I will overcome,” he said.
Carola looked at him, and seemed to shrink into herself. They neither of them spoke until they had crossed a river by a low bridge, and ridden up to the walls and outbuildings of an ancient abbey and convent.
Luc dismounted and helped Carola from her horse. Between them they laid the little girl on the long grass beneath the wall. Luc fastened the horses to a staple that was there for that purpose; his hands were very cold and his whole body shivering. When he came back to the narrow door, he found Carola standing beside the great iron bell. Above her head an ash drooped over the wall; the hard scarlet fruit hung against the grey stone and mortar. She had removed her hat; through the fine black ringlets showed the long red diamonds, flame in crystal, that glittered in her ears. Under Luc’s black cloak, her dress gleamed rich, and soft, and bright. Her face was pallid, hollow, and expressionless.