Besides, you would not believe how the maestro's praises and the imperial gift have excited the vanity in her woman's nature.

For the first time in I know not how many years, she overslept the hour of mass.

It was probably ten o'clock when I knocked at her chamber door.

Toward eleven there was a movement in her room.

Then I opened the door to bid her good-morning, but she neither heard nor saw anything, and knelt at the priedieu as if turned to stone.