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"Ma'amselle does not object, a trapper or a cavalier, all are fish to Ma'amselle's net. Mon Dieu! If all were so attractive as Ma'amselle!" The little maid sighed in exaggerated dolour. Dupre flashed round on his moccasined heel and reached her in a stride. "Aha! It is you, by all the saints!" he said beneath his breath, as he took her none too gently by the shoulder. "I know your tricks."
After affectionate good-nights, the girls went to their rooms, and a half hour later, wrapped in kimonos and with their long braids hanging down their backs, they were all perched on Patty's big bed alone at last. "But it is of a gorgeousness," exclaimed Rosamond, mimicking, but not unkindly, the old Ma'amselle's imperfect English; "me, I never have so many feetmen at home!
Confronting an astonished groom, she asked him in forcible, if not entirely correct French, whether there was an assistant chauffeur, or any groom who could run a motor car. She was informed that there was not, that Ma'amselle's chauffeur himself and the groom who had accompanied him were the only ones in the establishment who knew anything about automobiles. If Mademoiselle desired a coach, now?
It was decorated with frescoes and mural paintings by well-known French artists. It contained statues and paintings and clocks and vases that might have graced a museum. The armour of knights stood about, and valuable trophies graced the wainscoted walls. A wide carved staircase wound spirally up from one end; and at Ma'amselle's suggestion, the girls were ushered at once to their room.
Patty had come to herself after her momentary unconsciousness, and was all right once more, though physically tired from her exciting exertions. Ma'amselle's own chauffeur was overcome with amazement when he learned what Patty had done, and took off his cap to her, with the air of one offering homage to a brave heroine.
The maid ushered the wondering girls to Ma'amselle's apartments and found her in her dressing-room, in the hands of her maid, who was assisting her in a hasty toilette. The tears were rolling down the old lady's cheeks, and she seemed to be in a state of trembling agitation. "Ah, mes enfants" she cried, "but it is news of the most dreadful! Mon Henri, my well-beloved nephew, his arm, it is broken!
A cloud of dust, a clatter of hoofs, Ma'amselle's screams as the carriage rocked while she was mounting the steps, and with much cracking of whips and swearing at horses from the postillions who had taken their fill of home-brewed ale, hog's harslet, and cold chine, and, lo, the brilliant vision of the Honourable Henrietta Maria and her train vanished in the dust of the summer highway, and Angela went slowly back to the long green walk beside the fish-pond, where she was in as silent a solitude, but for a lingering nightingale or two, as if she had been in the palace of the sleeping beauty.
The girls were all amazed at the grandeur and beauty of Ma'amselle's home, and were unable to repress their admiration; but Ma'amselle was pleased rather than otherwise that they should express their pleasure. "But surely," she said, "it is indeed the beautiful home. This hall! It is not of a smallness! And in the old days it welcomed royal guests." The hall was indeed magnificent.
Maren held out her hand and Laroux grasped it in a clasp of faith. "See!" cried Tessa Bibye, peeping eagerly from among the women, "she holds hands with that blackhaired man of her people who spurs the rest. One man or another, as Francette says, little cat! all are fish who come to Ma'amselle's net! The factor, or the cavalier, or a common voyageur.
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