You must write to him, that is all, and tell him that with time I can arrange, but not in a hurry like this.

Where is the furniture to come from?
A chair or two from the banquet-hall; I can lend a bed which Jean can carry in after dark so that no one knows; you have the jug and basin you bought when the Bishop came, that you must lend--" She broke off and ran to the window.

"Good," she cried, in a despairing voice, "I hear a carriage coming up the hill.
Run, Monsieur l'Abbe--run to the gate and bolt it.

Guest or no guest, they cannot see the rooms like this.

Here, let me past." She pushed him unceremoniously aside at the head of the stairs and ran past him.