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"I know that there is a great lord in the Red Chamber, him that Madam Maulfry tends with her own hands." "Ah, ah! You have seen him?" "No, I have never seen him. He is very ill." Isoult gazed at him, shocked to the soul. Ill, and she not near by! "Oh, Vincent," she whispered. "Oh, Vincent!" "Yes, Isoult," Vincent had caught some breath of her horror, and whispered, "Yes, Isoult, he is very ill.
Isoult, who had known pinned rags, and had gone feet and legs bare without a thought, went now as if she were naked, or clothed only in her shame. But it was the fashion Maulfry adopted towards her own person, and there were no others to convict her. Nanno the old serving-woman and Vincent the page, who was only a boy, made up the household-except for the closed door.
Presently they came to an open glade where there were two horses held by a mounted groom. As soon as he saw them coming the groom got off, helped Isoult first, then his mistress. They rode away at a quick trot down the slope; the horses seemed to know the way. Maulfry was in high spirits. She played a thousand tricks, and enveigled from the brooding girl her most darling thoughts.
In two minutes you will not be on your own, but on his, if I know mankind." Isoult changed the talk. "Do you know, or can you tell me, when my lord will come out, ma'am?" she ventured. "Come out, child? Out of what? Out of a box?" Maulfry cried in mock rage. "'Tis my belief you know as much as I do. 'Tis my belief you have been at a keyhole." Mockery gave way; the matter was serious.
The sun of her day-dreaming rose again and shone full upon her. By the end of the day they had reached Tortsentier. Isoult was fast in a prison that had no look of a prison, where Galors was mending his throat in an upper chamber. Maulfry came and sat on the foot of his bed.
And shut the wickets when I am in!" He kissed Maulfry then and there, and they went to bed. On the morning after his strange wedding Prosper rose up early, quite himself. He left Isoult asleep in the bed, but could see neither old man, old woman, nor friar; so far as he could tell, he and his wife were alone in the cottage. Now he must think what to do.
"Ah, I remember he was given to the game. Hum! And what else did he tell you, child?" "Deal justly, live cleanly, breathe sweet breath," Isoult answered in a whisper, as if she were in church: "praise God when He is kind, bow head and knees when He is angry, look for Him to be near at all times. Do this, and beyond it trust to thine own heart." Maulfry pished and pshawed at this hushed oracle.
Doubt, wonder, longing, prayer, quavered in her eyes as each held the throne for a time. "He told me to stay at Gracedieu," she faltered. It seemed to her that she was maiming her own dream. "He tells me differently then," said Maulfry, smiling easily; "I suppose even a lover may change his mind." "Oh! Oh! you have seen him? "Certainly I have seen him." "And he says " "What do you think he says?
Having once settled herself on the old footing with her lord and master, wherein, if there was nothing to gain, there was also nothing to lose, the humble soul set to work to forget her late rebellion, and to be as happy as the shadow of Maulfry and the uncompromising shifts of the enamoured Melot would allow.
From all this it will appear that Isoult was a prisoner, since a prisoner you are if, although you can go out, there is nowhere for you to go; if, further, your hostess neither goes out herself nor gives you occasion to leave her. Yet Maulfry made her guest elaborately free of the place. "Child," she said, "you see how I live here.
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