"I wonder what you would do," she said, "if the old lover followed us,
and she went off with him!"
"She would not go," he answered coldly, and without looking up.
"But if he rode off with her?"
"She would come back on her feet!"
Madame St. Lo's prudence was not proof against that. She had the woman's
inclination to hide a woman's secret; and she had not intended, when she
laughed, to do more than play with the formidable man with whom so few
dared to play. Now, stung by his tone and his assurance, she must needs
show him that his trustfulness had no base. And, as so often happens in
the circumstances, she went a little farther than the facts bore her.
"Any way, he has followed us so far!" she cried viciously.
"M. de Tignonville?"
"Yes. I saw him this morning while you were bathing. She left me and
went into the little coppice. He came down the other side of the brook,
stooping and running, and went to join her."
"How did he cross the brook?"
Madame St. Lo blushed. "Old Badelon was there, gathering simples," she
said. "He scared him. And he crawled away."
"Then he did not cross?"
"No. I did not say he did!"
"Nor speak to her?"
"No. But if you think it will pass so next time--you do not know much of
women!"
"Of women generally, not much," he answered, grimly polite. "Of this
woman a great deal!"
"You looked in her big eyes, I suppose!" Madame St. Lo cried with heat.
"And straightway fell down and worshipped her!" She liked rather than
disliked the Countess; but she was of the lightest, and the least
opposition drove her out of her course. "And you think you know her! And
she, if she could save you from death by opening an eye, would go with a
patch on it till her dying day! Take my word for it, Monsieur, between
her and her lover you will come to harm."
Count Hannibal's swarthy face darkened a tone, and his eyes grew a very
little smaller.
"I fancy that he runs the greater risk," he muttered.
"You may deal with him, but, for her--"
"I can deal with her. You deal with some women with a whip--"
"You would whip me, I suppose?"
"Yes," he said quietly. "It would do you good, Madame. And with other
women otherwise. There are women who, if they are well frightened, will
not deceive you. And there are others who will not deceive you though
they are frightened. Madame de Tavannes is of the latter kind."
"Wait! Wait and see!" Madame cried in scorn.
"I am waiting."
"Yes! And whereas if you had come to me I could have told her that about
M. de Tignonville which would have surprised her, you will go on waiting
and waiting and waiting until one fine day you'll wake up and find Madame
gone, and--"