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"You have good eyes if you can recognize him from here," said the Gaillefontaine. "How he is staring at the little dancer!" went on Diane de Christeuil. "Let the gypsy beware!" said Fleur-de-Lys, "for he loves not Egypt." "'Tis a great shame for that man to look upon her thus," added Amelotte de Montmichel, "for she dances delightfully."
The gypsy, who had dropped her eyes on the floor at the words of Colombe de Gaillefontaine, raised them beaming with joy and pride and fixed them once more on Phoebus. She was very beautiful at that moment. The old dame, who was watching this scene, felt offended, without understanding why. "Holy Virgin!" she suddenly exclaimed, "what is it moving about my legs? Ah! the villanous beast!"
"Rather savagely dressed," said Diane de Christeuil, laughing to show her fine teeth. This remark was a flash of light to the others. Not being able to impugn her beauty, they attacked her costume. "That is true," said la Montmichel; "what makes you run about the streets thus, without guimpe or ruff?" "That petticoat is so short that it makes one tremble," added la Gaillefontaine.
Whereupon Colombe de Gaillefontaine, another beautiful blonde, with a white skin, dressed to the neck in blue damask, ventured a timid remark which she addressed to Fleur-de-Lys, in the hope that the handsome captain would reply to it, "My dear Gondelaurier, have you seen the tapestries of the Hotel de la Roche-Guyon?"
Phoebus laughed, and took the gypsy's part with a mixture of impertinence and pity. "Let them talk, little one!" he repeated, jingling his golden spurs. "No doubt your toilet is a little extravagant and wild, but what difference does that make with such a charming damsel as yourself?" "Good gracious!" exclaimed the blonde Gaillefontaine, drawing up her swan-like throat, with a bitter smile.
They were, in fact, Damoiselle Fleur-de-Lys de Gondelaurier and her companions, Diane de Christeuil, Amelotte de Montmichel, Colombe de Gaillefontaine, and the little de Champchevrier maiden; all damsels of good birth, assembled at that moment at the house of the dame widow de Gondelaurier, on account of Monseigneur de Beaujeu and Madame his wife, who were to come to Paris in the month of April, there to choose maids of honor for the Dauphiness Marguerite, who was to be received in Picardy from the hands of the Flemings.
"Poor man!" said the gypsy, in whom these words revived the memory of the pillory. The captain burst out laughing. "Corne-de-boeuf! here's pity as well placed as a feather in a pig's tail! May I have as big a belly as a pope, if " He stopped short. "Pardon me, ladies; I believe that I was on the point of saying something foolish." "Fie, sir" said la Gaillefontaine.
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