"Oh, Gabrielle, I am not myself; I am the most miserable girl on earth."
"What a thing of April weather is this love of yours! Smiles and tears, sunshine and drifting clouds; ever changing and plaguing, as it seems to me, coz."
"You will know some day, Gabrielle."
"I could hope not, indeed. It seems to me the world has sterner work for some of us women than to be plaguing our wits to please a man or pleasing ourselves by plaguing him. I would gladly give up all if I could help my people in Morvaix here. Little did the Duke think how nearly his offer touched me."
"Did you think so sternly yesterday, Gabrielle, after that chance encounter in the market place?"
"If my thoughts wandered from my duty for an hour, a night's reflection has corrected them," answered Gabrielle slowly.
"The night had nothing but bitterness for me," cried Lucette dismally. "And to-day Denys has ridden away without a word."
"You should not provoke his anger against you so lightly."
"There was no cause for it. He would be jealous of another man's shadow," said Lucette with a pout; and then with a quick change of mood, she cried: "Oh, how selfish I am; but how am I to tell you?"
"To tell me what?"
"I don't know what name to give it, or how to speak of it. I was talking with Master Dauban, your uncle's secretary"
"So that was the cause of Denys' anger! Lucette, Lucette!"
"I hate him; he is a loathsome creature."
"Then why talk to him?"
"He made me talk to him by what he said."
"Now of a truth you puzzle me."
