For a second I stared at her, and then did as I was bidden. As I stepped in a figure rose from a seat near the window, and I heard Diane's voice:
"Orrain, you have come to see me at last!"
And then what followed concerns not anyone. I know not how long we were there, talking, planning, and dreaming; but suddenly the curtains lifted, and Catherine stood before us.
"Monsieur d'Orrain," she said, "I await my answer."
And then she burst out laughing.
There is but a word more to add, and my story ends. We were married the following week, for that was the Queen's wish, and then my wife and I said farewell to Paris and the Court for ever. As we rode one evening on our way to Orrain, round the elbow of the pine-clad hill of St. Hugo, and the towers of the Chateau came in sight, I told my wife of my dream, and then we were aware of a figure galloping up the leaf-strewn road towards us. It was Le Brusquet on his mule.
"Eh bien!" he said as he kissed my wife's hand. "And I am the first to welcome you home, after all! Orrain, mon ami, I have seen your pears. They are finer than mine—I swear it!"