Lucette to wait alone for Denys and seek to make her peace with him. But Lucette was obstinate; and when at length she caught sight of Denys in the distance, dust-stained with his long ride, walking in their direction, she drew Gabrielle hurriedly behind a clump of trees into hiding.
"We will see what he does," she whispered excitedly. "I shall know by his face what mood he is in."
When Denys reached the spot where they had been he paused and looked about him.
"It was here I saw her, I'll swear," he said aloud to himself. "I marked that old chestnut tree," and he glanced at it. "Which way can she have gone? Lucette," he called in a loud voice. "Lucette." As he looked about him he backed close to the low trees behind which the two girls stood. "She can't have wandered far. Lucette—Lucette." he called again, and waited for his voice to come echoing back.
Then Lucette, whose face had brightened at hearing him call for her, plucked a rose from her bosom and tossed it so that it fell upon him in its course to the ground. He picked it up and smiled.
"A rose from an almond tree," he said aloud. "Surely something of a strange portent. Where are you, Lucette; little witch, that changes the natural blooms of a tree?"
Lucette had stepped on a low bough of a tree and now looked through the bushes.
"I have dropped my rose, m'sieu. May I trouble you? Ah, M. Denys, is it you?" with a start of pretended surprise.
"Lucette," he said passionately.
"Monsieur!" This distantly.
"Come, Lucette. Let the rose make our peace. I have been thinking of you through all my long ride."
She came slowly toward him, parting the bushes and playing at indifference.
