For all that, she was apprehensive of some unhappy accident.
He reassured her, then went out, astonished at the inconsequence of her moods.
Soon afterwards a page came to announce that two strangers, in the absence of the lord, asked to see the lady at once.
And soon came into the room an old man and an old woman, bent, dusty, in coarse garments, each leaning on a staff.
They took courage and declared that they brought Julian news of his parents.
She leant forward to listen to them.
Meanwhile, having understood each other by a glance, they asked her if he always loved them still, if he ever spoke about them.
“Oh, yes,” she said.
Then they exclaimed:
“Well, we are they!” And they sat down very weary and overcome with fatigue.