The Midnight Queen - Page 40/177

"Well, well; that has nothing to do with it. The question is, where it

she to be found?"

"Found!" echoed Prudence; "has she then been lost?"

"Of coarse she has, you old simpleton! How could she help it, and she

dead, with no one to look after her?" said La Masque, with something

like a half laugh. "She was carried to the plague-pit in her

bridal-robes, jewels and lace; and, when about to be thrown in, was

discovered, like Moses is the bulrushes, to be all alive."

"Well," whispered Prudence, breathlessly.

"Well, O most courageous of guardians! she was carried to a certain

house, and left to her own devices, while her gallant rescuer went for a

doctor; and when they returned she was missing. Our pretty Leoline seems

to have a strong fancy for getting lost!"

There was a pause, during which Prudence looked at her with a face fall

of mingled fear and curiosity. At last: "Madame, how do you know all this? Were you there?"

"No. Not I, indeed! What would take me there?"

"Then how do you happen to know everything about it?"

La Masque laughed.

"A little bird told me, Prudence! Have you returned to resume your old

duties?"

"Madame, I dare not go into that house again. I am afraid of taking the

plague."

"Prudence, you are a perfect idiot! Are you not liable to take the

plague in the remotest quarter of this plague-infested city? And even

if you do take it, what odds? You have only a few years to live, at the

most, and what matter whether you die now or at the end of a year or

two?"

"What matter?" repeated Prudence, in a high key of indignant amazement.

"It may make no matter to you, Madame Masque, but it makes a great deal

to me; I can tell you; and into that infected house I'll not put one

foot."

"Just as you please, only in that case there is no need for further

talk, so allow me to bid you good-night!"

"But, madame, what of Leoline? Do stop one moment and tell me of her."

"What have I to tell? I have told you all I know. If you want to find

her, you must search in the city or in the pest-house!"

Prudence shuddered, and covered her face with her hands.

"O, my poor darling! so good and so beautiful. Heaven might surely have

spared her! Are you going to do nothing farther about it?"

"What can I do? I have searched for her and have not found her, and what

else remains?"

"Madame, you know everything--surely, surely you know where my poor

little nursling is, among the rest."

Again La Masque laughed--another of her low, sweet, derisive laughs.