One of her moods, rare of late,
was upon her, and she continued:
"Oh, my dear master! you will never go to France; but Pierre shall
inherit the honors of the house of Philibert!"
The Bourgeois looked up contentedly. He respected, without putting
entire faith in Dame Rochelle's inspirations. "I shall be
resigned," he said, "not to see France again, if the King's Majesty
makes it a condition that he restore to Pierre the dignity, while I
give him back the domain of his fathers."
Dame Rochelle clasped her hands hard together and sighed. She spake
not, but her lips moved in prayer as if deprecating some danger, or
combating some presentiment of evil.
The Bourgeois watched her narrowly. Her moods of devout
contemplation sometimes perplexed his clear worldly wisdom. He
could scarcely believe that her intuitions were other than the
natural result of a wonderfully sensitive and apprehensive nature;
still, in his experience he had found that her fancies, if not
supernatural, were not unworthy of regard as the sublimation of
reason by intellectual processes of which the possessor was
unconscious.
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