Count Hannibal

"Nothing I can tell you," she answered, with a shudder. "It was he who

took me into the Chamber."

"Why did you go?"

"Wait until he bids you do something," she answered. "His manner, his

smile, his tone, all frighten me. And to-night, in all these there was a

something worse, a hundred times worse than when I saw him last--on

Thursday! He seemed to--to gloat on me," the girl stammered, with a

flush of shame, "as if I were his! Oh, Monsieur, I wish we had not left

our Poitou! Shall we ever see Vrillac again, and the fishers' huts about

the port, and the sea beating blue against the long brown causeway?"

He had listened darkly, almost sullenly; but at this, seeing the tears

gather in her eyes, he forced a laugh.

"Why, you are as bad as M. de Rosny and the Vidame!" he said. "And they

are as full of fears as an egg is of meat! Since the Admiral was wounded

by that scoundrel on Friday, they think all Paris is in a league against

us."

"And why not?" she asked, her cheek grown pale, her eyes reading his

eyes.

"Why not? Why, because it is a monstrous thing even to think of!"

Tignonville answered, with the confidence of one who did not use the

argument for the first time. "Could they insult the King more deeply

than by such a suspicion? A Borgia may kill his guests, but it was never

a practice of the Kings of France! Pardieu, I have no patience with

them! They may lodge where they please, across the river, or without the

walls if they choose, the Rue de l'Arbre Sec is good enough for me, and

the King's name sufficient surety!"

"I know you are not apt to be fearful," she answered, smiling; and she

looked at him with a woman's pride in her lover. "All the same, you will

not desert me again, sir, will you?"

He vowed he would not, kissed her hand, looked into her eyes; then

melting to her, stammering, blundering, he named Madame St. Lo. She

stopped him.

"There is no need," she said, answering his look with kind eyes, and

refusing to hear his protestations. "In a fortnight will you not be my

husband? How should I distrust you? It was only that while she talked,

I waited--I waited; and--and that Madame St. Lo is Count Hannibal's

cousin. For a moment I was mad enough to dream that she held you on

purpose. You do not think it was so?"