in her dreamy voice.

And with one hand she mechanically took from the frame a bobbin wound
with gold thread, in order to make the open-work centre of one of the
large lilies. After having loosened the end from the point of the reel,
she fastened it with a double stitch of silk to the edge of the vellum
which was to give a thickness to the embroidery. Then, continuing her
work, she said again, without finishing her thought, which seemed lost
in the vagueness of its desire, "Oh! as for me, what I would like, that
which I would like above all else----"

The silence fell again, deep and profound, broken only by the dull sound
of chanting which came from the church. Hubert arranged his design by
repassing with a little brush all the perforated lines of the drawing,
and thus the ornamentation of the cope appeared in white on the red
silk. It was he who first resumed speaking.

"Ah! those ancient days were magnificent! Noblemen then wore costumes
weighted with embroidery. At Lyons, material was sometimes sold for as
much as six hundred francs an ell. One ought to read the by-laws and
regulations of the Guild of Master Workmen, where it is laid down that
'The embroiderers of the King have always the right to summon, by armed
force if necessary, the workmen of other masters.' . . . And then we
had coats of arms, too! Azure, a fesso engrailed or, between three
fleurs-de-lys of the same, two of them being near the top and the third
in the point. Ah! it was indeed beautiful in the days of long ago!"

He stopped a moment, tapping the frame with his fingers to shake off the
dust. Then he continued: