arth could ever be quite
so desirable.

His mistake lay in this: that he believed that it was his political
convictions alone which had turned Crystal away from him: he felt that
he could have won her love through her submission once she was his wife,
now he found that he would have to win her love first and her wifely
submission would only follow afterwards.

Just now--though in the gloom he could only see the vague outline of her
graceful form, and only heard her voice as through a veil of
darkness--he had the longing to prove himself at once worthy of her
regard and deserving of her gratitude.

Without replying to her direct challenge, he made a vigorous effort to
curb his rage, and to master his disappointment. Then he gave a few
brief commands to his sergeant, ordering him to repair the disorder
inside the coach, and to stop all further searching both of the vehicle
and of the men.

Finally he said with calm dignity: "M. le Comte, I must offer you my
humble apologies for the inconvenience to which you have been subjected.
I humbly beg Mme. la Duchesse and Mademoiselle Crystal to accept these
expressions of my profound regret. A soldier's life and a soldier's duty
must be my excuse for the part I was forced to take in this untoward
happening. Mme. la Duchesse, I pray you deign to re-enter your carriage.
M. le Comte, if there is aught I can do for you, I pray you command me.
. . ."

Neither the Duchesse nor the Comte, however, deigned to take the
slightest notice of the abominable traitor and of his long tirade.
Madame was shivering with cold and yawning with fatigue, and in her
heart consigned the young brute to everlasting torments.

The Comte would have thought it beneath his dignity to accept any
explanation from a follower of the Corsican usurper. Without a word he
was now helping his sister into the carriage.

Jeanne, of course, hardly counted--she was dazed into semi-imbecility by
the renewed terrors she had just gone through: so for the moment Victor
felt that Crystal was isolated from the others. She stood a little to
one side--he could only just see her, as the sergeant was holding up the
lanthorn for Mme. la Duchesse to see her way into the coach. M. le Comte
went on to give a few directions to the coachman.

"Mademoiselle Crystal!" murmured Victor softly.

And he made a step forward so that now she could not move toward the
carriage without brushing against him. But she made no reply.

"Madem