ven out those who built it? It makes me blush to think that my
father should invite you to your own house.'

'Perhaps we had been rooted here too long,' I answered. 'Perhaps it is
for our own good that we are driven out to carve our own fortunes, as I
intend to do.'

'You say that you are going to the Emperor?'

'Yes.'

'You know that he is in camp near here?'

'So I have heard.'

'But your family is still proscribed?'

'I have done him no harm. I will go boldly to him and ask him to admit
me into his service.'

'Well,' said she, 'there are some who call him a usurper, and wish him
all evil; but for my own part I have never heard of anything that he has
said and done which was not great and noble. But I had expected that
you would be quite an Englishman, Cousin Louis, and come over here with
your pockets full of Pitt's guineas and your heart of treason.'

'I have met nothing but hospitality from the English,' I answered; 'but
my heart has always been French.'

'But your father fought against us at Quiberon.'

'Let each generation settle its own quarrels,' said I. 'I am quite of
your father's opinion about that.'

'Do not judge my father by his words, but by his deeds,' said she, with
a warning finger upraised; 'and, above all, Cousin Louis, unless you
wish to have my life upon your conscience, never let him suspect that I
have said a word to set you on your guard.'

'Your life!' I gasped.

'Oh, yes, he would not stick at that!' she cried. 'He killed my mother.
I do not say that he slaughtered her, but I mean that his cold brutality
broke her gentle heart. Now perhaps you begin to understand why I can
talk of him in this fashion.'

As she spoke I could see the secret broodings of years, the bitter
resentments crushed down in her silent soul, rising suddenly to flush
her dark cheeks and to gleam in her splendid eyes. I realised at that
moment that in that tall slim figure there dwelt an unconquerable
spirit.

'You must think that I speak very freely to you, since I have only known
you a few hours, Cousin Louis,' said she.

'To whom should you speak freely if not to your own relative?'

'It is true; and yet I never expected that I should be on such terms
with you. I looked forward to your coming with dread and sorrow.
No doubt I showed something of my feelings when my father brought you
in.'

'Indeed you did,' I answered. 'I feared that my presence was unwelcome
to you.'

'Most unwelco