"That, _minette_, is the fairy story which I promised you if you would be a good cat and wait patiently for breakfast. And you have done so, and now I have kept my promise——"
She lifted her eyes from her knitting, turned her head over her shoulder, and saw Warner and Halkett gravely listening.
"Oh," she said, blushing. "Did you hear the story I have been telling to Ariadne?" She held out her hand to Warner and then to Halkett, inspecting the latter critically, much interested in his uniform.
"You saw our cuirassiers?" she asked, as they seated themselves at the table. "So did I. Also, they saw me. I wished them to see me because I was dressed in this dress. We understood each other, the ’grosse cavalerie’ and I."
"We saw what was going on," said Halkett. "I should say that about two thousand suitors have been added to your list this morning, Philippa."
She turned shy and a little grave at that, but seeing Warner laughing, laughed too.
"If I were a great lady," she said, "you might be right. Only from the saddle could any man dare hope for a smile from me now."
Linette, with the bright color of excitement still brilliant in her cheeks, brought out the breakfast tray.
"On the quarry road, across the river," she said, "our _fantassins_ are marching north—thousands of them, messieurs!—and the dust is like a high white wall against the hills!"
So they hastened with their coffee and rolls; Warner fetched the garden ladder and set it against the east wall, and all three mounted and seated themselves on the coping.
What Linette had reported was true: across the Récollette a wall of white dust ran north and south as far as they could see. Under it an undulating column tramped, glimmering, sparkling, flowing northward—an endless streak of dusty crimson where the red trousers of the line were startlingly visible through the haze.
Watching the stirring spectacle from a seat on the wall beside Philippa, Warner turned to her presently:
"I feel quite well." She looked up at him out of her honest grey eyes. "It is the happiest morning of my life," she said in a low voice.
"For two reasons: I am to remain with you, that is one reason; I have lived to see what I am looking at yonder, that is the other reason."