venture into the
courtyard even."

She was not a nervous girl, and she was used to be alone; but the bare,
roomy house seemed lonely after her father and his party had set out.
She wandered to the kitchen where the two old women-servants were
preparing, with the aid of a turnspit, the early supper; there she
learned that only old Simon, the lame ostler, was left in the stables,
which stood on either side of the courtyard. This was not re-assuring
news: the more as Madeline knew her father might not return for another
hour. She went thence to the long eating-room on the first floor, which
ran the full depth of the house, and had one window looking to the back
as well as several facing the courtyard. Here she opened the door of the
stove, and let the cheery glow play upon her.

Presently she grew tired of this, too, and moved to the rearward window.
It looked upon a narrow lane, and a dead wall. Still, there was a chance
of seeing some one pass, some stranger; whereas the windows which looked
on the empty courtyard were no windows at all--to Madeline.

The girl had not long looked out before her pale complexion, which the
fire had scarcely warmed, grew hot. She started, and glanced nervously
into the room behind her; then looked out again. She had seen, standing
in a nook of the wall opposite her, a figure she knew well. It was that
of her lover, and he seemed to be watching the house. Timidly she waved
her hand to him, and he, after looking up and down the lane, advanced
to the window. He could do this safely, for it was the only window in
the Toussaints' house which looked that way.

"Are you alone?" he whispered, looking up at her.

She nodded.

"And my sisters? I am here to learn what has become of them."

"Have gone to Philip Boyer's. He lives in one of the cottages on the
left of the Duchess's court."

"Ah! And you? Where is your father?" he murmured.

"He has gone to take them. I am alone; and two minutes ago I was
melancholy," she added, with a smile that should have made him happy.

"I want to talk to you," he replied. "May I climb up if I can,
Madeline?"

She shook her head, which of course meant, no. And she said, "It is
impossible." But she smiled; and that meant, yes. Or so he took it.

There was a pipe which ran up the wall a couple of feet or so on one
side of the casement. Before she understood his plan, or that he was in
earnest, he had gripped this, and was halfway up to the window.

"Oh,