"Oh! yes," said the girl quietly. "It was no good as you had gone. Then they looked for you everywhere and hunted for you in every direction."
"And Lorchen?"
"Lorchen was not there. She came back afterwards after she had been to the town."
"Did she see my mother?"
"Yes. Here is the letter. And she wanted to come herself, but she was arrested too."
"How did you manage to come?"
"Well, she came back to the village without being seen by the police, and she was going to set out again. But Irmina, Gertrude's sister, denounced her. They came to arrest her. Then when she saw the gendarmes coming she went up to her room and shouted that she would come down in a minute, that she was dressing. I was in the vineyard behind the house; she called to me from the window: 'Lydia! Lydia!' I went to her; she threw down your valise and the letter which your mother had given her, and she explained where I should find you. I ran, and here I am."
"Didn't she say anything more?"
"Yes. She told me to give you this shawl to show you that I came from her."
Christophe recognized the white shawl with red spots and embroidered flowers which Lorchen had tied round her head when she left him on the night before. The naïve improbability of the excuse she had made for sending him such a love-token did not make him smile.