The old lady did not respond. She held her eyes fixed upon the window of the shop, as if some terrifying object had there been descried.
“What is the matter, Citizeness?” asked the proprietor of the shop who reappeared at that moment.
The citizen pastry-cook aroused the lady from her revery by handing to her a little pasteboard box, covered with blue paper.
“Nothing, nothing, my friends,” she replied in a mild voice.
She raised her eyes to the pastry-cook as though to cast upon him a glance of gratitude; but upon seeing him with a red bonnet upon his head, she allowed a cry to escape her:
“Ah! you have betrayed me!”
The young woman and her husband replied by a gesture of horror which caused the Unknown to blush—perhaps for having suspicion, perhaps from pleasure.
“Excuse me,” she said, with a childlike gentleness.
Then, taking a louis d’or from her pocket, she presented it to the pastry-cook.
“Here is the price agreed upon,” she added.