Madame lay still as a mouse. Cousin Monica set down her two little vials on the table, and, stooping again over the bed, began very gently with her fingers to lift the coverlet that covered her face. Madame uttered a slumbering moan, and turned more upon her face, clasping the coverlet faster about her. 'Madame, it is Maud and Lady Knollys. We have come to relieve your ear. Pray let me see it. She can't be asleep, she's holding the clothes so fast. Do, pray, allow me to see it.' CHAPTER XI _LADY KNOLLYS SEES THE FEATURES_ Perhaps, if Madame had murmured, 'It is quite well--pray permit me to sleep,' she would have escaped an awkwardness. But having adopted the rôle of the exhausted slumberer, she could not consistently speak at the moment; neither would it do by main force, to hold the coverlet about her face, and so her presence of mind forsook her. Cousin Monica drew it back and hardly beheld the profile of the sufferer, when her good-humoured face was lined and shadowed with a dark curiosity and a surprise by no means pleasant. She stood erect beside the bed, with her mouth firmly shut and drawn down at the corners, in a sort of recoil and perturbation, looking down upon the patient. 'So that's Madame de la Rougierre?' at length exclaimed Lady Knollys, with a very stately disdain. I think I never saw anyone look more shocked. Madame sat up, very flushed. No wonder, for she had been wrapped so close in the coverlet. She did not look quite at Lady Knollys, but straight before her, rather downward, and very luridly. I was very much frightened and amazed, and felt on the point of bursting into tears. 'So, Mademoiselle, you have married, it seems, since I had last the honour of seeing you? I did not recognise Mademoiselle under her new name.' 'Yes--I _am_ married, Lady Knollys; I thought everyone who knew me had heard of that. Very respectably married, for a person of my rank. I shall not need long the life of a governess. There is no harm, I hope?' 'I hope not,' said Lady Knollys, drily, a little pale, and still looking with a dark sort of wonder upon the flushed face and forehead of the governess, who was looking downward, straight before her, very sulkily and disconcerted. 'I suppose you have explained everything satisfactorily to Mr. Ruthyn, in whose house I find you?' said Cousin Monica. 'Yes, certainly, everything he requires--in effect there is _nothing_ to explain. I am ready to answer to any question. Let _him_ demand me.' 'Very good, Mademoiselle.' '_Madame_, if you please.' 'I forgot--_Madame_--yes, I shall apprise him of everything.' Madame turned upon her a peaked and malign look, smiling askance with a stealthy scorn. 'For myself, I have nothing to conceal. I have always done my duty. What fine scene about nothing absolutely--what charming remedies for a sick person! Ma foi! how much oblige I am for these so amiable attentions!'