was called upon to speak. Then Aurora first quietly took
possession of her hands, and after another tender pause asked in
English, which was equivalent to whispering:

"Were you was, _cherie?_"

"'Sieur Frowenfel'--"

Aurora straightened up with angry astonishment and drew in her breath
for an emphatic speech, but Clotilde, liberating her own hands, took
Aurora's, and hurriedly said, turning still paler as she spoke:

"'E godd his 'ead strigue! 'Tis all knog in be'ine! 'E come in
blidding--"

"In w'ere?" cried Aurora.

"In 'is shob."

"You was in dad shob of 'Sieur Frowenfel'?"

"I wend ad 'is shob to pay doze rend."

"How--you wend ad 'is shob to pay--"

Clotilde produced the bracelet. The two looked at each other in silence
for a moment, while Aurora took in without further explanation
Clotilde's project and its failure.

"An' 'Sieur Frowenfel'--dey kill 'im? Ah! _Ma chere_, fo' wad you mague
me to hass all dose question?"

Clotilde gave a brief account of the matter, omitting only her
conversation with Frowenfeld.

"_Mais_, oo strigue 'im?" demanded Aurora, impatiently.

"Addunno!" replied the other. "Bud I does know 'e is hinnocen'!"

A small scouting-party of tears reappeared on the edge of her eyes.

"Innocen' from wad?"

Aurora betrayed a twinkle of amusement.

"Hev'ryt'in', iv you pliz!" exclaimed Clotilde, with most uncalled-for
warmth.

"An' you crah bic-ause 'e is nod guiltie?"

"Ah! foolish!"

"Ah, non, my chile, I know fo' wad you cryne: 't is h-only de sighd of
de blood."

"Oh, sighd of blood!"

Clotilde let a little nervous laugh escape through her dejection.

"Well, then,"--Aurora's eyes twinkled like stars,--"id muz be bic-ause
'Sieur Frowenfel' bump 'is 'ead--ha, ha, ha!"

"'Tis nod tru'!" cried Clotilde; but, instead of laughing, as Aurora had
supposed she would, she sent a double flash of light from her eyes,
crimsoned, and retorted, as the tears again sprang from their
lurking-place, "You wand to mague ligue you don't kyah! But _I_ know! I
know verrie well! You kyah fifty time' as mudge as me! I know you! I
know you! I bin wadge you!"

Aurora was quite dumb for a moment, and gazed at Clotilde, wondering
what could have made her so unlike herself. Then she half rose up, and,
as she reached forward an arm, and laid it tenderly about her daughter's
neck, said:

"Ma lill dotter, wad dad meggin you cry? Iv you will tell me wad dad
mague you cry, I will tell you--on