t have tightened, for again he raised
his face to hers as she stooped over him, speaking softly. This time
it was he who nodded.

"You know best," he whispered back, and the words would have given La
Mothe food for thought had he heard them. "As you say, it will be
safer to have him before our eyes than behind our backs. We may be
quite sure that Hugues will watch him. Yes, I agree: at least he is
prettier to look at than that beast of a Villon."

From her side, where she held it pressed, her left hand slipped down
across the Dauphin's shoulder until it too drew him towards her, but
when she raised her head the lines were smoothed from the forehead, and
if the grey eyes were still watchful, they watched through a smile.

"Monseigneur permits it," she said. "Monseigneur, I have the honour to
present to you Monsieur Stephen La Mothe."

"Monsieur La Mothe of where?" asked the boy gravely.

"Of Landless, in the Duchy of Lackeverything," replied La Mothe, bowing
with an equal gravity, and at the adroit parrying of a difficult
question the smile crept down from Ursula de Vesc's eyes until it
loosened the hard lines of the mouth, and bent them to that Cupid's bow
La Mothe so much desired to see. "I have many fellow-subjects,
Monseigneur."

"Another name for that duchy is Amboise," said Charles, "and so,
monsieur, it is my wish that you make the castle your home for as long
as it pleases you."

He spoke with such a settled seriousness that it was difficult to be
sure whether he understood the jest and played up to it in that spirit
of make-believe which had drawn down the King's anger or answered out
of a dull uncomprehension. Nor did La Mothe care which it was. His
heart leaped within him at the double promise opened up of fulfilling
the King's mission at his ease and watching the unbending of the curved
bow, but he answered with an equal gravity.

"Then Landless is not Houseless, Monseigneur, and to devotion gratitude
is added."

"Discretion and good appetite give a man a longer life than either,"
said Villon.

"But remember," and Commines spoke to La Mothe for the first time, "the
King has first claim upon both."

"On discretion and good appetite?" said Villon gravely. "I fear,
Monsieur d'Argenton, His Majesty in his present health has more need of
the second than the first."

"Take your ribald impertinences elsewhere, but beware how you attempt
them upon me elsewhere," answered Commines, with a ster