was almost the
grandest house in the street. We entered, and were led into the
presence of a very noble-looking gentleman in a long yellow
dressing-gown, who blessed us and gave us a kiss apiece, and some
gold money, and afterwards poured out wine for Maman Trebuchet and
thanked her for taking such good care of us."

"That was your father, Princess."

"I have often thought so. But I remember nothing of his face except
that he had tears in his eyes when we said good-bye to him; at which
I wondered a great deal, for I had never seen a man crying. When we
were outside again in the street Maman Trebuchet took the gold away
from us. I think she too must have received money: for from that
day she neglected her marketing and drank more heavily than before.
About a month later she was dead.

"On the day of the funeral there came to our house a man dressed like
a gentleman--yet I believe rather that he must have been some kind of
courier or valet. He spoke to us very kindly, and said that we had
friends, who had sent him to us; that when we grew up we should not
want for money; but that just now it was most important we should be
put to school and made fit for our proper position in life. We must
make up our minds to be separated, he said--and at this we both
wept--but we should see one another often. For Camillo he had found
lodgings with an excellent tutor, in whose care, after a year's
study, he was to travel abroad and see the world: while for me he had
chosen a home with some discreet ladies who would attend to my
schooling."

"The house was in the Rue de Luxembourg--a corner house, where the
street is joined by a lane running from the Place du Parvis. He led
me to it that same evening, and Camillo came too, to make sure that I
was comfortable. It was a strange house and full of ladies, the most
of them young and all very handsomely dressed. But for their dresses
I could almost have fancied it some kind of convent. At all events,
they received me kindly, and many of them wept when they saw my
parting with Camillo."

Here the Princess paused, and sat silent for so long that I bent
forward in the dusk to read her face. She drew away, shivering, and
put up both hands as if to cover it.

"Well, Princess?"

"That house, Cavalier! . . . that horrible house! . . . Ah, remember
that I was a child, scarcely twelve years old--I had heard vile words
among the market folk, but they were words and meant nothing to