“Bon! let us try a song, then,” he said more gently. “Here is the one you sang the other night. We must have more tone in it and less effort. Now take a long breath, Mademoiselle, before you begin; stand naturally and at rest, and then open your mouth wide. Allons!”
Margot pulled herself together for a final attempt, her knees shook under her and it seemed as if a knot came into her throat. A horrible fear assailed her that she might be going to lose her one talent; she forced her voice against her breath, and it came out a loud, wavering sound without form or music. She was so completely unnerved by the result that she covered her ears with her hands and gazed at Jean with wide-eyed despair.
“But you are not well,” said Jean, as soon as she let her hands fall. “You are upset about something, and you are frightened! Come, tell me what is it?”
Margot, overwhelmed by this sudden return to sympathetic relations, burst into tears.
“Oh, Monsieur,” she sobbed; “do not blame me, I am quite hopeless, I know. You will despise me utterly, but—but I have a question to decide, there is something I must ask you, Monsieur. Oh! Oh! I am afraid you will be very angry with me!”
“But, Mademoiselle Margot, sit down; tell me what is it?” said Jean, now thoroughly roused and touched by her evident distress. “As if I could be angry with you! There! there! dry your eyes. It is you who should be angry with me, then, for being such a bad-tempered brute of a master! If you cry any more, Margot, I shall think you hate me.”
Margot stopped crying—it would be dreadful if Jean should think she hated him! So she dried her eyes in her handkerchief and smiled at him through her tears.
“It is only like this, Monsieur!” she whispered confidentially. Jean leaned forward to hear; perhaps like him she also had a tragedy, poor little one! “I—I wanted to know if you liked eggs à l’aurore,” she explained with trembling lips, “so that I could go out and try to find some fresh ones!”
“Margot!” cried Jean, and for a moment he said nothing more.
“You’re—you’re not angry, Monsieur?” she pleaded.