"
The moment these words fell on Huguette's ears, they stung her into
life and activity. She leaped to her feet in a flash.
"What do you say?" she raged, and then, seeing a woman's form a few
feet away from her, she rushed towards the stranger furiously while
the others rose in cages expectation of some new excitement.
"What do you seek here?" she asked fiercely of the old woman, and
then as she saw the pitiful wrinkled face staring up at her, she
started back in surprise.
The old woman, misinterpreting the sex of her questioner from the
dress that Huguette wore, began apologetically.
"Asking your pardon, young gentleman," and for a moment her words
were drowned in a shout of delighted laughter, as the listening
rogues appreciated the blunder she had made.
"Asking your pardon, young gentleman, I seek Master Fran?ois
Villon."
Huguette snapped at her impatiently, "Seek him and find him." Then
turning to Ren?, she cried, "Montigny, you beast!" and with her hand
on her dagger, made hotly for him.
Montigny, grinning like a delighted monkey, skipped for safety,
dodging her around the table, while the others perceiving a victim
in the bewildered old woman, joined hands in a ring and began
dancing wildly around her, singing a ribald song.
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