them. Her clear, fine
complexion could stand the searchlight of the brightest sun, her hair
was like burnished gold, her eyes, Philippe thought, like the bluets in
the fields of Normandy.

"Cousin Molly, you remind me of the beautiful Jehane de Saint-Pol.
Jehane of the Fair Girdle, the beloved of Richard Coeur de Lion,
Richard Yea-and-Nay. Her eyes were gray green while yours are of the
most wonderful blue, but there is something about your height and
slenderness, your poise, the set of your head, the glory of your hair
that suggests her. If Mother gives the fancy dress ball that she is
threatening, please go as Jehane. I should like to go as Richard."

Molly blushed. She was always confused by compliments and personalities
and hoped Philippe would stop pressing them on her. They had been
pleasant companions in Paris and she had liked being with him very much.
He was extremely agreeable and well-informed, handsome and charming, but
Molly preferred him as a cousin to a courtier. She had an idea that the
title of "Yea-and-Nay" was rather suitable for him, more suitable than
"Lion Hearted."

"Please tell me the ghost story about the chapel," she begged, changing
the subject adroitly.

"All right, if you won't tell mother I told it. She has a horror of it
and is afraid the servants might get timid and refuse to stay here alone
while we are in Paris, if the old tale were revived. My people, you
perhaps know, were Huguenots. The archives show that it was from flocks
of sheep belonging to _Roche Craie_ that the wool was taken to send as a
present to Queen Elizabeth of England, in return for her gift of nine
pieces of cannon to the downtrodden Huguenots.

"The owner of _Roche Craie_ was one Jean d'Ochte, a man of great
intelligence and integrity. He had been a gay courtier at the court of
Charles IX, but, there, had come under the influence of Admiral Coligny
and had turned Huguenot. His wife, much younger than himself, the
beautiful Elizabeth, a cousin of the Guises, followed her husband's
example but saw no reason why she need give up all gaiety and pleasure
because of her change of heart. But Jean took her away from the court
and all of its dissipations and dangers and brought her here to the old
chateau, where she was literally buried alive in stupidity and ennui.

"Jean fought with the Prince of Conde against the Guises, but when peace
was finally declared in 1570, I think it was, he came back to _Roche
Craie_ and