d me with a laugh. "Follow me from the ballroom
just after supper at midnight for a half hour's chat alone in a place
I know; and don't let either the General or the Governor see you," she
then said in an undertone as the Gouverneur Faulkner bent forward and
began a laughing conversation with her.

"I will," I answered her under my breath, and I leaned back in my
chair so that the Gouverneur Faulkner could more conveniently converse
with her. And to that end he placed his arm across the back of my
chair, and thus I sat in his embrace with my shoulder pressed into
his.

I do not know exactly what it was that happened in the depths of me,
but suddenly the daredevil rose from those depths and knew herself for
a very strong woman filled to the brim with a primitive, savage
cunning with which to fight the beautiful woman at my side for the
honor of the man whose strong heart I could feel beating against my
woman's breast strapped down under its garment of man's attire. And
that cunning showed me that I would have a hundredfold better
opportunity to do her and her schemes against him and against France
to the death in my garments and character of a man, than I could have
had if I had come into his and her world as the beautiful young
Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye. Then for those hated garments of a
raven my heart beat so high with gratitude that I moved again forward
from the arm of His Excellency for fear that he might feel the tumult
even through that strong towel of the bath which I had sewed above it,
and be in wonderment as to its cause.

"Here's to your first duel with a woman in which you use a man's
weapons, Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, and see that you
score--for him--and for France!" I said to myself as we rose from the
table and with the other men I bowed the ladies from the room.

"At midnight," I whispered while I bent for a second to kiss the hand
of the beautiful Madam Whitworth as she left the room. As I raised my
head from the salutation I encountered the eyes of the Gouverneur
Faulkner, which looked into mine with an expression of calm question.
And for a moment I let the woman rise superior to the raven attire and
I looked back into those eyes, in which I saw the mystery of the dawn
star, as would have gazed Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, had she
been attired in the white tulle and lace abandoned in that New York;
then I beat her back down into my heart and gave him the smile of
fealty th