"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.