"Attend me within call,"
and as Noel obeyed him, he advanced to where Huguette was standing,
with a smile of scornful indifference still on her fair face.
Villon asked himself as he went:
"Why, in God's name, does the world appear so 'different to-day? Is
it the thing they call the better self, or merely this purple and
fine linen?"
What he said when he came to the girl was,
"Fair mistress, you have a comely face and you make it very plain
that you have a comely figure. Why do you go thus?"
The girl shrugged her green shoulders and shifted the balance of her
body from one green leg to the other, as she answered impudently,
"For ease and freedom, to please myself, and to show my fine shape
to please others."
Last night this girl had been his own familiar friend; to-day she
lay leagues away from his fairy greatness. There was pity in his
next speech.
"Are you a happy woman, mistress?"
"Happy enough," she answered as she snapped her fingers defiantly,
"when fools like you don't clap me into prison for living my life in
my own way."
"I may be a fool, but I did not clap you into prison. Heaven
forbid!"
A curious look came into the girl's eyes, and she drew a little
nearer to him.
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