"He has robbed you of your purse!" they laughed.
"My purse!" I cried; "Pierrot—help! it is a thief!"
They laughed: "He has robbed you of your purse!"
Then Truth stepped out, holding a mirror. "If he is an honest thief," cried Truth, "Pierrot shall find him with this mirror!" but he only grinned, dusting the chalk from my black cloak.
"You see," he said, "Truth is an honest thief, she brings you back your mirror."
All eyes were turned on me.
"Arrest Truth!" I cried, forgetting it was not a mirror but a purse I lost, standing with Pierrot, there, where the throng was thickest in the street.
THE JESTER
"Was she fair?" I asked, but he only chuckled, listening to the bells jingling on his cap.
"Stabbed," he tittered. "Think of the long journey, the days of peril, the dreadful nights! Think how he wandered, for her sake, year after year, through hostile lands, yearning for kith and kin, yearning for her!"