ys be pleased?"

"And you, Thetralde?"

"Say 'thou' to me. We address one another with 'thou' in Germany. Say to
me: 'And thou, Thetralde?'"

"But the respect--"

"I say 'thou' to you, and do not respect you the less for it," rejoined
the maid laughing. "Say to me: 'And thou, Thetralde?'"

"And thou, Thetralde?"

"So thou wishest to know whether I would be happy at the thought of all
our days resembling this one, and our living together?"

"Yes, my charming Princess!"

The young maid remained pensive, holding in her delicate fingers a half
opened chestnut husk. Presently she raised her head and broke the
silence with the question: "Vortigern, is it far from here to thy
country?"

"It took us more than a month to come here from Brittany."

"Vortigern, what a beautiful journey that would make!"

"What sayest thou?"

Thetralde made a charming gesture commanding silence: "Hast thou any
money about thee?"

And proceeding to detach from her belt a little embroidered purse, she
emptied its contents into her lap. There were several heavy pieces of
gold and a large number of smaller pieces of silver and copper. Two of
the latter, one of silver and one of copper, and both of about the size
of a denier, were pierced and tied together by a thread of gold. "This
is all my treasure," the girl observed.

"Why are these two pieces tied together?" inquired Vortigern, with a
look of curiosity.

"Oh, these two must never be spent. We must preserve them carefully. One
of them, the copper one, was struck the year of my birth; the other, the
silver one, was struck this year, when I shall be fifteen. Fabius, my
father's astronomer, has engraved upon these pieces certain magical
signs corresponding to planets of happy influence. The Bishop of
Aix-la-Chapelle blessed them. They are a talisman."

"If it were not that they are a talisman, Thetralde, I would have
requested these two little pieces from thee as a souvenir of this day."

"To what purpose wouldst thou keep a souvenir of this day rather than of
the next days to follow? Dost thou not desire that all should resemble
one another? If thou desirest these two little pieces, here, take them;
I give them to thee. A talisman is a useful thing on a journey. Place
them in the pocket of thy jacket."

Vortigern obeyed almost mechanically, while the young girl, after
ingenuously counting up her little hoard, resumed, saying: "We here have
five gold sous, eight silver deniers,