gerous
fellow, of whom I must beware. I had just begun to wonder how Madame
could keep such a monster in her house, when I heard his step returning.
He came in, lighting Louis, who carried a small pallet and a bundle of
coverings.

The dumb man had, besides the lanthorn, a bowl of water and a piece of
rag in his hand. He set them down, and going out again, fetched in a
stool. Then he hung up the lanthorn on a nail, took the bowl and rag,
and invited me to sit down.

I was loth to let him touch me; but he continued to stand over me,
pointing and grinning with dark persistence, and rather than stand on
a trifle I sat down at last and gave him his way. He bathed my head
carefully enough, and I daresay did it good; but I understood. I
knew that his only desire was to learn whether the cut was real or a
pretence, and I began to fear him more and more; until he was gone from
the room, I dared scarcely lift my face lest he should read too much in
it.

Alone, even, I felt uncomfortable, this seemed so sinister a business,
and so ill begun. I was in the house. But Madame's frank voice haunted
me, and the dumb man's eyes, full of suspicion and menace. When I
presently got up and tried my door, I found it locked. The room smelt
dank and close--like a vault. I could not see through the barred window,
but I could hear the boughs sweep it in ghostly fashion; and I guessed
that it looked out where the wood grew close to the walls of the house,
and that even in the day the sun never peeped through it.

Nevertheless, tired and worn out, I slept at last. When I awoke the room
was full of grey light, the door stood open, and Louis, looking ashamed
of himself, waited by my pallet with a cup of wine in his hand, and some
bread and fruit on a platter.

'Will Monsieur be good enough to rise?' he said. 'It is eight o'clock.'

'Willingly,' I answered tartly. 'Now that the door is unlocked.'

He turned red. 'It was an oversight,' he stammered 'Clon is accustomed
to lock the door, and he did it inadvertently, forgetting that there was
anyone--'

'Inside,' I said drily.

'Precisely, Monsieur.'

'Ah!' I replied. 'Well, I do not think the oversight would please Madame
de Cocheforet if she heard of it?'

'If Monsieur would have the kindness not to--'

'Mention it, my good fellow?' answered, looking at him with meaning as I
rose. 'No. But it must not occur again.'

I saw that this man was not like Clon. He had the instincts of the
fa