"Well, my good nurse, once more I have to wait."
"More waiting!" Aloyse exclaimed, wringing her hands. "Holy Virgin! it is very hard and very sad to wait."
"It would be impossible," said Gabriel, "if I had not work to do meanwhile. But I will work with a will, and thank God, I can beguile the tedium of the journey by thinking steadfastly of the goal."
He entered the parlor, and threw his mantle over the back of a couch.
He did not see Martin-Guerre, who was sitting in a corner plunged in deep reflections.
"Come, come, Martin, you sluggard, what are you about?" cried Dame Aloyse to the squire. "Can't you even help Monseigneur to take off his cloak?"
"Oh, pardon! pardon!" Martin exclaimed, rousing himself from his revery, and leaping from his seat.
"All right, Martin, don't disturb yourself," said Gabriel. "Aloyse, I wish you would not trouble poor Martin; his zeal and devotion are more necessary to me than ever at this moment, and I have some very serious matters to talk over with him."
Vicomte d'Exmès's slightest wish was sacred to Aloyse. She favored the squire with her sweetest smile, now that he was restored to grace, and discreetly left the room, to leave Gabriel more at liberty to say what was in his mind.
"Martin," said he, when they were alone, "what were you doing there? What were you thinking about so deeply?"