She put the bank-notes into
the pocket of the boy's jacket, and whispered to him: "Give them to your
mother when I have gone away." Under those circumstances, she felt sure
that Madame Marillac would yield to the temptation. She could resist
much--but she could not resist her son.
The boy nodded, to show that he understood her. The moment after he
laid down his flageolet with an expression of surprise.
"You are trembling!" he said. "Are you frightened?"
She _was_ frightened. The mere sense of touching him had made her
shudder. Did she feel a vague presentiment of some evil to come from
that momentary association with him?
Madame Marillac, turning away again from her daughter, noticed Stella's
agitation. "Surely, my poor boy doesn't alarm you?" she said. Before
Stella could answer, some one outside knocked at the door. Lady Loring's
servant appeared, charged with a carefully-worded message. "If you
please, miss, a friend is waiting for you below." Any excuse for
departure was welcome to Stella at that moment. She promised to call
at the house again in a few days.
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