A fluttering, long-drawn sigh escaped her.

Now, if she could slip out and make her escape! Now--she looked round.

She was not far from the door; to withdraw seemed easy.

But a staring, whispering knot of gentlemen and pages blocked the way; and the girl, ignorant of the etiquette of the Court, and with no more than a week's experience of Paris, had not the courage to rise and pass alone through the group.
She had come to the Louvre this Saturday evening under the wing of Madame d'Yverne, her _fiance's_ cousin.

By ill-hap Madame had been summoned to the Princess Dowager's closet, and perforce had left her.