I was marvelling, not only as to what my mistress would next do, and when I should see her again (though that was uppermost in my mind), but also concerning the strange words of the Maid, that I alone should be with her when all forsook her and fled.

How might this be, and was she not to be ever victorious, and drive the English forth of France?
To my thinking the Maid dwelt ever in two worlds, with her brethren of Paradise, and again with sinful men.

And I have often considered that she did not always remember, in this common life, what had befallen her, and what she knew when, as the Apostle says, she "was out of the body." For I have heard her say, more than once, that she "would last but one year, or little more," and, again, she would make plans for three years to come, or four, which is a mystery.
So I was pondering, when I looked up, and saw Charlotte standing in the entrance between the court and garden, looking at me and smiling, as she shaded her eyes with her hand from the sun, and then she ran to me lightly as a lapwing.
"They are coming down the street, looking every way for our house, your lady and her father," she said, putting the wine-cup into my hand.

"Now is it war or peace ?" and she fled back again within the house.
My heart stood still, for now everything was on the fall of the dice.
Would this mad girl be mocking or meek?
Would she anger my lady to my ruin with her sharp tongue?
For Charlotte was of a high temper, and wont to rule all the house by reason of her beauty and kind wild ways.

Nor was Elliot the meekest of women, as well I knew, and a word, nay a smile, or a glance of mockery, might lightly turn her heart from me again for ever.