She shivered as her eyes met mine, and she blinked as if a bright light had been suddenly thrust before her; but that was all, and she turned again to her task without speaking.
'Madame! Madame!' I cried in a frenzy of distress.

'What is this ?' 'The servants would not do it,' she answered in a low but steady voice.
'You are still our guest, Monsieur.' 'But I cannot suffer it!' I cried.

'Madame de Cocheforet, I will not--' She raised her hand with a strange patient expression in her face.
'Hush! please,' she said.

'Hush! you trouble me.' The fire blazed up as she spoke, and she rose slowly from it, and with a lingering look at it went out, leaving me to stand and stare and listen in the middle of the floor.

Presently I heard her coming back along the passage, and she entered bearing a tray with wine and meat and bread.
She set it down on the table, and with the same wan face, trembling always on the verge of tears, she began to lay out the things.