and vowing that she had a
right to talk as she pleased to her own saints; it was not his affair.
Thus it was that our chastened cavalcade left the "Dejeuner."

After this, our journey was punctuated by frequent pauses. The donkeys
were tired; everybody was cross; the calm indifference of the glorious
night was as irritating as must have been the "icily regular,
splendidly null" perfection of Maud herself.

Only the Boy kept up any pretence of spirits, and I knew well that his
counterfeited buoyancy was merely to distract attention from guilt. If
it had not been for him, we should all have been tucked away in some
corner or other of the "Dejeuner." No doubt he would have dropped, had
he not feared an "I told you so."

We were still some miles on the wrong side of Orsieres, when
Innocentina came running up from behind, exclaiming that a dreadful
thing, an appalling thing, had happened. No, no, not an accident to
Joseph Marcoz. A trouble far worse than that. Nothing to the _mulet ou
les anes_. Ah, but how could she break the news? It was that in some
way--some mad, magical way only to be accounted for by the
intervention of evil spirits, probably attracted by the heretic
presence of Joseph--the _ruecksack_ containing the fitted bag had
disappeared. If she were to be killed for it, she--Innocentina--could
not tell how this great calamity had occurred.

I thought that after such an alarming preface, the Boy would laugh
when the mountain had brought forth its mouse, but he did no such
thing. His little face looked anxious and forlorn in the white
moonlight. And all for a mere bag, which was an absurd article of
luggage, at best, for an excursion such as his!

"I _can't_ lose it," he said. "There are things in it which I wouldn't
have anyone's--which I couldn't replace."

"Your sister the Princess will buy you another," I tried to console
him.

"This is her bag. She would feel dreadfully if it were gone. Besides,
my diary-notes for the book I want to write are in it. I would give a
thousand dollars to get it again--or more. I shall have to go back."

"No, you won't," I said. "As to that, I shall put my foot down. If
anyone goes----"

"Nobody shall go but myself. I won't have it. I----"

"And I won't have you go, if I'm forced to snatch you up and put you
in my pocket. When I get you safely to Orsieres, I don't mind a
bit----"

"No, no, you needn't say it. If we must go on to Orsieres, I'll pay
someone to come ba