Aimee’s keen eyes flashed, as drawing forth two sous from her pocket, she said in a tone of incisive contempt, “You shall have these, Mademoiselle, but not till you have told me the whole truth, as you would to the cure at confession.  Come then—­say.”

The sorceress began with shuffling tones and glances, which grew more sure as she went on: 

“I watched for the little one returning on the afternoon of Sunday—­he told me to do so.  I was to give her the message that Antoine desired to meet with her at the entrance of the Dwarf’s Valley:  I had but to give the message:  it was not my fault.  I am but a poor old woman that does the bidding of others.”

“Well, well,” said Aimee, impatiently, “what else did you tell her?”

Jeanne looked at her interlocutor again, and a strange expression grew in her eyes.

“It is Jeanne that knows the Evil Ones, that knows their shape and their speech.  She knows them when they walk among men, and she knows them in their homes in the dark valley.”

“Chut, chut,” cried Aimee, the more irritably that her maternal feelings had to overcome her natural inclination to superstition.  “It is only one thing you have to tell—­how did you frighten Marie so that she is ready to go out of her wits at the sight of Antoine?”

“Nay, it was Geoffroi that frightened her, as they went up the ravine together.  I had but told her not to go alone, for that They were abroad that night.”  The old woman broke into a curious chuckle.  “How she shivered, like a chicken in the wind!  H’ch, h’ch!  Then he took hold of her arm and led her away, for I had told her he was a safe protector against the spirits, not like some that wear the face of man and go up and down in the village, saying that the people should not believe in Jeanne the sorceress, for that she tells that which is untrue—­while they themselves have dealings such as none can know with the Evil Ones.”

Aimee looked at her keenly for some moments with a curious expression on her tightly-folded lips.

“You would have me believe that Marie went into the ravine when she knew the spirits were about, and went on the arm of Geoffroi?”

“I tell you, Grandmere, that she did so.  It was Jeanne that compelled her.  For Jeanne knows when a man is in league with Them, and she said to Marie, ’Thou wilt wed Antoine, but thou knowest not what he is; go to the Black Stone to-night, and thou shalt see.’  H’ch!  Jeanne knows nothing, does she?  But Marie went, for she knew that Jeanne was wise.  And what she saw, she saw.”