Esmeralda’s longing for Phoebus is exposed at the Gondelaurier home through an accidental-seeming display that makes private attachment visible to an audience. At the young women’s request, Phoebus de Châteaupers calls the dancer up from the street; while the household watches, the Goat arranges alphabet blocks to spell PHOEBUS. Esmeralda’s response, Fleur-de-Lys’s recognition of a rival, and Phoebus’s decision to follow Esmeralda turn a social encounter into a disclosure with immediate consequences.

The Invitation and the Summons

The scene begins with the young women asking Phoebus to signal Esmeralda to come upstairs. Their invitation is framed as entertainment: they want to see the dancer brought into their company. Phoebus answers that Esmeralda has probably forgotten him and that he does not even know her name, but agrees to make the attempt. Leaning over the balcony, he calls to her and beckons her toward the house.

Esmeralda is not performing at that moment. She turns toward the call, sees Phoebus, and stops. After he calls again, she makes her way through the astonished spectators toward the entrance. The narrative emphasizes her hesitation and visible embarrassment: she moves slowly, with a troubled expression, and appears unsure as she approaches. The change from public dancer to summoned guest matters. The others have treated her appearance as a diversion, while her response makes clear that the call has a personal force for her.

A short time later, Esmeralda reaches the chamber but does not immediately advance farther. She stands at the threshold, blushing, confused, and breathless, with her eyes lowered. The staging keeps her at the boundary between the household’s gathering and the space occupied by Phoebus and the young women. Bérangère’s applause registers the arrival as a spectacle, but Esmeralda’s reserve gives the encounter a more serious emotional charge than the invitation’s playful purpose suggested.

The Goat’s Alphabet

While attention is fixed on Esmeralda, Bérangère has secretly coaxed the Goat into a corner with a marchpane cake. She removes the bag from its neck, opens it, and scatters its contents on the rush matting: small boxwood blocks, each bearing a separate letter. The child then watches the Goat select and arrange several of them. They form a word, and Bérangère calls the household’s attention to what the animal has done.

The word is PHOEBUS. The physical details make the revelation unusually concrete: a name that has until now belonged to the captain’s private connection with Esmeralda appears in letters on the floor, assembled in front of the household. The Goat’s movements seem practiced, and the narration presents this display as one of its trained marvels; the scene does not explain how the animal learned the name or establish that the arrangement was deliberately planned as a disclosure. Its effect, however, is immediate. What might have remained a silent recognition between Esmeralda and Phoebus becomes evidence that the assembled company can inspect and interpret.

Fleur-de-Lys runs to see the letters and trembles. She asks whether the Goat wrote them. When Bérangère confirms that it did, Fleur-de-Lys understands the significance. Her reaction supplies the scene’s central recognition: the name belongs to her captain, and Esmeralda’s reaction to the display confirms for Fleur-de-Lys that the dancer has not forgotten him. The revelation comes not through an avowal by Esmeralda but through an animal’s alphabet, making a private attachment legible by an unexpected, public means.

Recognition and Rivalry

When the others gather around the letters, Esmeralda sees what the Goat has arranged. She turns red, then pale, and trembles as if confronted with an accusation. Phoebus, by contrast, looks at her with satisfaction and amazement. The difference between their responses sharpens the disclosure: the name surprises the company, but Esmeralda’s distress shows that it touches a feeling already present rather than creating a new one.

Fleur-de-Lys first addresses Esmeralda as someone with a remarkable memory. She then breaks into sobs and calls her a magician, while inwardly recognizing her as a rival. Her fainting makes that recognition visible to the household. The event therefore exposes two attachments at once, though not on equal terms: Esmeralda’s remembered devotion to Phoebus and Fleur-de-Lys’s fear that the dancer competes with her for him. The scene does not require Esmeralda to explain herself. The letters and the women’s sharply different reactions do the work of disclosure.

The household’s response also changes the tone of the encounter. The young women had asked Phoebus to summon Esmeralda for amusement; now the displayed name has unsettled Fleur-de-Lys and provoked her mother to order Esmeralda away. The shift from curiosity to accusation shows how quickly a performance arranged for spectators can become a judgment upon its subject. Esmeralda is watched, interpreted, and dismissed before she has offered any account of her feelings.

The Parting and Its Consequence

As Fleur-de-Lys is being carried out, Esmeralda gathers up the letters, signals to the Goat, and leaves through one door. Fleur-de-Lys is taken through the other. The split exits give the revelation an immediate physical consequence: the two young women are separated, and the household’s gathering breaks apart around the disclosure. Esmeralda’s departure follows the public exposure of the name, but the scene does not state that she leaves to evade Phoebus or explain what she intends to do next.

Phoebus is left alone between the two doors for a moment. He then follows Esmeralda. That choice closes the episode with a small but decisive action: the captain who had described the encounter as a trial made at the young women’s request does not remain with the household after the exposure. He goes after the dancer whose attachment has just been revealed. The narrative records his movement without giving an explanation for it, leaving its significance in the contrast between the two possible departures and the one he takes.

The episode’s force rests on that sequence of invitation, sign, recognition, and separation. A call from a balcony brings Esmeralda into a room; a set of letter blocks makes her connection to Phoebus visible; Fleur-de-Lys’s response transforms the discovery into rivalry; and Phoebus’s following Esmeralda carries the scene beyond the household’s gathering. The disclosure is public, but its meaning remains unevenly distributed: Esmeralda’s visible distress, Fleur-de-Lys’s recognition, and Phoebus’s final action each reveal a different relation to the name on the floor.