"Think about it," he answered provokingly. "Adieu, my child!" he went
on mockingly, using Valmond's words, and catching both her hands as he
had done; then, springing upon a bench by the oven, he kissed her on both
cheeks. "Adieu, my child!" he said again, and, jumping down, trotted
away out into the road. Back to her, from the dust he made as he
shuffled away, there came the words:

"Gold and silver he will bring,
Vive le roi, la reine!
And eke the daughter of a king
Vive Napoleon!"

She went about her work, the song in her ears, and the words of the
refrain beat in and out, out and in:

"Vive Napoleon." Her brow was troubled, and she perched her head on
this side and on that, as she tried to guess what the dwarf had meant.
At last she sat down on a bench at the door of her home, and the summer
afternoon spent its glories on her; for the sunflowers and the hollyhocks
were round her, and the warmth gave her face a shining health and
joyousness. There she brooded till she heard the voice of her mother
calling across the meadow; then she got up with a sigh, and softly
repeated Parpon's words: "He is a great man!"

In the middle of that night she started up from a sound sleep, and, with
a little cry, whispered into the silence: "Napoleon--Napoleon!"

She was thinking of Valmond. A revelation had come to her out of her
dreams. But she laughed at it, and buried her face in her pillow and