It
was Huguette who, after listening to Noel's complaints of the Grand
Constable, had suggested to him, in apparent artlessness of heart,
that he could play upon the king's superstitions through a new
astrologer and had promised to find him a star-gazer who would say
anything and everything that Messire Noel wished to have said. The
scheme had appealed to Noel, and this very evening he expected
Huguette to bring the astrologer to him, to which end he had
entrusted her with a password which would admit strangers into the
royal garden.
As he mused, a figure in a pilgrim's gown came cautiously out of the
shadows into the moonlight behind him and stood for a moment
watching him. The god Pan could see the face that smiled under the
pilgrim's hood--a girl's face, with bright eyes framed in golden
hair, but when the girl saw Noel, she slipped a mask over her face,
drew her pilgrim's gown closely about her slim body, and tip-toed
lightly across the grass to touch Noel on the shoulder.
Noel turned with a start, and faced, as he believed, a masquerading
palmer.
"May I vend you a benevolence, gentleman?" Huguette asked,
disguising her voice in an unfamiliar gruffness.
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