After lunch, Albert, Maurice, Jean, and Genevieve settled themselves under a great oak, which was said to have been planted by a delightful little Duchess of Castel-Montjoie, who had been celebrated at Court during the Regency. A marble table and a heavy circular bench made this wild corner quite cosy, and sheltered from the sun and from the curious. The tree was just opposite the tower where Esperance was sleeping so deeply, and Mlle. Frahender was to give a signal from the window when she awoke. Neither of them felt much inclined for conversation, for their eyes were fixed on the window opposite. About half-past four Mlle. Frahender appeared, and Genevieve hastened to the room.
Esperance was sitting up in bed, remembering nothing.
"Albert, Maurice, and Jean are over there. Do you wish to see them?"
Esperance rose up quickly, wrapping a robe of blue Japanese crêpe embroidered in pink wisterias about her, and gracefully fastened up her hair.
"Let them come, if you please, now."
The young men entered and stopped in amazement at the change that had already taken place in her. Instead of finding her a wreck they discovered her pink, gay and laughing.
"What happened to me?" she asked. "My little Mademoiselle does not know, she was not well herself. There is my Aphrodite costume. What happened to me?"
"It was very simple," explained Maurice. "You stayed too long with your head hanging down during the rehearsal, and as you were tired it made you ill. Albert brought you here and you have been asleep for five hours. Now you are your charming self again. We will leave you so that you can dress, and then if you feel like it we will take you for a drive."
"I will be very quick; in ten minutes I will be with you."
The young people did not know what to think. It would now be very difficult to suggest that Esperance should withdraw from the fête, as apparently every trace of her indisposition had disappeared.