Maria gave Angélique the piercing stare which unconsciously belongs to
large black eyes set in a hectic, nervous face.

"Would you die now?"

"I feel always," said the French girl, "that we stand facing the mystery
every minute, and sometimes I should like to know it."

"Now hear that," said Peggy. "I'm no Catholic, but I will say for the
mother superior that she never put that in your head at the convent. It
is wicked to say you want to die."

"But I did not say it. The mystery of being without any body,--that is
what I want to know. It is good to meditate on death."

"It isn't comfortable," said Peggy. "It makes me have chills down my
back."

She glanced behind her through the many-paned open window into the
dining-room. Three little girls and a boy were standing there, so close
to the sill that their breath had touched Peggy's neck. They were
Colonel Menard's motherless children. A black maid was with them,
holding the youngest by the hand. They were whispering in French under
cover of the music. French was the second mother tongue of every
Kaskaskia girl, and Peggy heard what they said by merely taking her
attention from her companions.

"I will get Jean Lozier to beat Monsieur Reece Zhone. Jean Lozier is
such an obliging creature he will do anything I ask him."