After a few terrible minutes, the hunchback looks at the crowd and cries painfully, "Some water!" But the people do not help the hunchback.
Again, Quasimodo cries, "Some water!" Everybody laughs.
Then a young girl with a little white goat pushes through the crowd. Quasimodo sees the gypsy girl from the night before. He thinks that she, too, wants to punish him.
Without a word, Esmeralda climbs up to Quasimodo. She kindly lifts a cup of water to his mouth and he drinks. A big tear slowly falls from his only eye. Enjoying this beautiful picture, the people are silent now. But one voice calls out loudly and clearly. Through her window, Sachette, the witch in the Tower of Roland, has seen Esmeralda.
"Go away, gypsy!" Sachette screams. "Thief! Thief!"
Chapter 3     Evil Thoughts and Evil Actions
It is a fine day at the beginning of March, two months after Quasimodo's flogging in the Place de Grěve. Opposite the great Cathedral of Notre-Dame, there is a large house. It is owned by the Gondelauriers, one of the richest families in Paris. On this beautiful afternoon, Mademoiselle Fleur-de-Lys de Gondelaurier is sitting in the front yard with a group of her friends. They are busy, cutting cloth and telling stories. These girls are all young, pretty, and very rich. They live comfortable lives in expensive houses, with beautiful furniture and delicious food.
Fleur-de-Lys has a special visitor: Phoebus de Chäteaupers, officer of the King's Guard and her future husband. The officer is happy that Fleur-de-Lys is pretty and rich. He is bored, though, in her company. He wants to be in a cheap bar with his soldier friends, talking to the girls there. But for now, he tries to talk to his future wife.
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"My dear," he says to Fleur-de-Lys, "what are you making?"
"It's a birthday gift for my mother, as I told you ten minutes ago," answers Fleur-de-Lys coldly. She knows that the handsome officer is bored with her.
Suddenly, Bérangěre, Fleur-de-Lys's little sister, calls everyone to the gate. "Look at that pretty girl. She dances very well and she has a little goat with her."
The officer does not look bored now. In fact, he is very interested in what he sees.
"Phoebus," says Fleur-de-Lys, "didn't you save a gypsy girl from the hands of thieves about two months ago?"
"You're right. I believe I did," the officer answers.
"Is that your gypsy girl in front of the cathedral?" Fleur-de-Lys
asks.
"I think you're correct. She had a little goat with her."
"Look in the tower, near the top of the cathedral, sister," says Bérangěre. "Who is that man in black up there?"
All the young ladies look up and see a priest at one of the high windows in the tower. His eyes are on the dancing girl.
"It's Father Claude Frollo," says Fleur-de-Lys. "He hates gypsy girls. Why is he watching her so carefully?"
"She dances beautifully," says one of Fleur-de-Lys's friends.
"Phoebus, since you know the girl, ask her to dance for us," orders Fleur-de-Lys.
Phoebus invites Esmeralda to the house and soon she is dancing for the party of young ladies. As Fleur-de-Lys and her friends watch, they each have one thought: She is surely the most beautiful girl in Paris. The girls do not want to be polite to Esmeralda. But Phoebus is clearly interested in her.
"My pretty child," Phoebus says after Esmeralda's dance, "we met in January. Do you remember me?"
Esmeralda says, "Oh, yes." She forgets about the other people in the yard. She looks into the officer's eyes and smiles sweetly.
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