upon me, and grinned in a singularly solemn
fashion. Monsieur de Saint-Eustache was little loved, it seemed.

Leaning heavily upon the arm of one of the lacqueys, the Chevalier moved
painfully towards the courtyard, where the carriage was being prepared
for him. At the last moment he turned and beckoned the Vicomte to his
side.

"As God lives, Monsieur de Lavedan," he swore, breathing heavily in
the fury that beset him, "you shall bitterly regret having taken sides
to-day with that Gascon bully. Remember me, both of you, when you are
journeying to Toulouse."

The Vicomte stood beside him, impassive and unmoved by that grim threat,
for all that to him it must have sounded like a death-sentence.

"Adieu, monsieur--a speedy recovery," was all he answered.

But I stepped up to them. "Do you not think, Vicomte, that it were
better to detain him?" I asked.

"Pshaw!" he ejaculated. "Let him go."

The Chevalier's eyes met mine in a look of terror. Perhaps already
that young man repented him of his menace, and he realized the folly of
threatening one in whose power he still chanced to be.

"Bethink you, monsieur," I cried. "Yours is a noble and useful life.
Mine is not without value, either. Shall we suffer these lives--aye,
and the happiness of your wife and daughter--to be destroyed by this
vermin?"

"Let him go, monsieur; let him go. I am not afraid."

I bowed and stepped back, motioning to the lacquey to take the fellow
away, much as I should have motioned him to remove some uncleanness from
before me.

The Vicomtesse withdrew in high dudgeon to her chamber, and I did not
see her again that evening. Mademoiselle I saw once, for a moment,
and she employed that moment to question me touching the origin of my
quarrel with Saint-Eustache.

"Did he really lie, Monsieur de Lesperon?" she asked.

"Upon my honour, mademoiselle," I answered solemnly, "I have plighted my
troth to no living woman." Then my chin sank to my breast as I bethought
me of how tomorrow she must opine me the vilest liar living--for I was
resolved to be gone before Marsac arrived--since the real Lesperon I did
not doubt was, indeed, betrothed to Mademoiselle de Marsac.

"I shall leave Lavedan betimes to-morrow, mademoiselle," I pursued
presently. "What has happened to-day makes my departure all the more
urgent. Delay may have its dangers. You will hear strange things of me,
as already I have warned you. But be merciful. Much will be true, much