avals to tell _us_ if he is satisfied with
this.' Her dark scornful eyes were fixed upon me as she waited for my
reply, but her father hastened to intervene.

'This is not a very hospitable tone in which to greet your cousin,' said
he harshly. 'It has so chanced that Louis' heritage has fallen to us,
but it is not for us to remind him of the fact.'

'He needs no reminding,' said she.

'You do me an injustice,' I cried, for the evident and malignant scorn
of this girl galled me to the quick. 'It is true that I cannot forget
that this castle and these grounds belonged to my ancestors--I should be
a clod indeed if I _could_ forget it--but if you think that I harbour
any bitterness, you are mistaken. For my own part, I ask nothing better
than to open up a career for myself with my own sword.'

'And never was there a time when it could be more easily and more
brilliantly done,' cried my uncle. 'There are great things about to
happen in the world, and if you are at the Emperor's court you will be
in the middle of them. I understand that you are content to serve him?'

'I wish to serve my country.'

'By serving the Emperor you do so, for without him the country becomes
chaos.'

'From all we hear it is not a very easy service,' said my cousin.
'I should have thought that you would have been very much more
comfortable in England--and then you would have been so much safer
also.'

Everything which the girl said seemed to be meant as an insult to me,
and yet I could not imagine how I had ever offended her. Never had I
met a woman for whom I conceived so hearty and rapid a dislike. I could
see that her remarks were as offensive to her father as they were to me,
for he looked at her with eyes which were as angry as her own.

'Your cousin is a brave man, and that is more than can be said for
someone else that I could mention,' said he.

'For whom?' she asked.

'Never mind!' he snapped, and, jumping up with the air of a man who is
afraid that his rage may master him, and that he may say more than he
wished, he ran from the room.

She seemed startled by this retort of his, and rose as if she would
follow him. Then she tossed her head and laughed incredulously.

'I suppose that you have never met your uncle before?' said she, after a
few minutes of embarrassed silence.

'Never,' answered I.

'Well, what do you think of him now you _have_ met him?'

Such a question from a daughter about her father filled me w