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VII . The Letters on the Floor Two months later , on a fine evening in March , a group of young ladies were sitting on a stone balcony opposite Notre - Dame . The balcony belonged to the house of a rich widow , Madame Aloïse de Gondelaurier , and her daughter , Fleur - de - Lys , was going to marry the captain of the king’s archers , Phoebus de Châteaupers . Phoebus was there too , but he looked bored . He stood behind the girls and played with his belt . Fleur - de - Lys was a little hurt by his coldness . To make him talk , she pointed down at the square , where a crowd stood in a circle . “ Look , cousin Phoebus , ” she said , “ there is a gypsy girl dancing down there with a goat . Is she the girl whom you saved from the thieves two months ago ? ” Phoebus looked down and said , “ Yes , I think so . I know her by the goat . ” “ Call her up , ” said the girls , “ it will be fun . ” So Phoebus leaned over the balcony and shouted , “ Little one ! ” The dancer stopped at once and looked up . When she saw who was calling her , her face went red . She picked up her tambourine and walked slowly through the crowd towards the house , like a bird that cannot fly away from a snake . When Esmeralda came into the room , the rich young ladies looked at her with jealous eyes . She was lovelier than all of them , and they knew it . So they began to laugh at her poor clothes , her bare arms , her short skirt and her cheap jewels . Esmeralda went pale , then red , but she did not answer . She only looked at Phoebus with sad , soft eyes . “ You ran away very quickly the other night , ” said Phoebus . “ Did I frighten you ? ” “ Oh , no , ” she said , and she smiled at him . “ Well , the man who wanted to steal you was punished . He is a one - eyed hunchback , the bell - ringer of the bishop , I think , and he was whipped on the pillory . ” “ Poor man , ” said Esmeralda . The ladies laughed at her pity , and Phoebus laughed too , but he took her side against them in a careless way . “ She is a pretty child , ” he said . While they were talking , Fleur - de - Lys’s little sister , Bérangère , had made friends with the goat in a corner of the room . She found a small bag hanging from its neck , opened it and poured out a lot of little wooden letters onto the floor . The goat began to move them with its golden hoof , and in a moment the letters formed a word . “ Look ! ” cried the child . “ The goat can write words ! ” Fleur - de - Lys came to see , and the word on the floor was PHOEBUS . “ The goat wrote that ? ” she said , and her voice was shaking . Esmeralda went white . She had taught Djali to make that word in secret , as the secret of her heart . She had never thought that anyone would see it . “ It is the captain’s name ! ” said the girls . Fleur - de - Lys looked at Esmeralda and then at Phoebus . “ She is a witch ! ” she cried , and she fell down in a faint . The gypsy quickly picked up the letters , made a sign to the goat and ran out of one door , while the servants carried Fleur - de - Lys out of the other . Phoebus stood alone for a moment between the two doors , and then he followed the gypsy .
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