They received him with consternation. The distracted lady was in a
chair, hugging herself; the Cluniac stood by, a mortified emblem; a
scared woman or two fled behind the throne. Madame Alois, when she saw
who the visitor was, began to shake.

'Oh, oh!' she said in a whisper, 'have you come to murder me, my lord?'

'Why, Madame,' Richard made haste to say, 'I would serve you any other
way but that, and supposed I had the right. But I came because you sent
for me.'

She passed her hand once or twice over her face, as if to brush cobwebs
away; one of the women made a piteous appeal of the eyes to Richard, who
took no notice of it; the monk said something to himself in a low voice,
then to the Count, 'Madame is overwrought, my lord.'

'Yes, you rascal,' thought Richard; 'your work.' Aloud he said, 'I hope
her Grace will give you leave to retire, sir.' Madame hereupon waved her
people away, and went on waving long after they had gone. Thus she was
alone with her future lord. There was the wreck of fine beauty about her
drawn race, beauty of the black-and-white, sheeted sort; but she looked
as if she walked with ghosts. Richard was very gentle with her. He drew
near, saying, 'I grieve to see you thus, Madame'; but she stopped him
with a question--

'They seek to have you marry me?'

He smiled: 'Our masters desire it, Madame.'