ng of one like him all my life! What a pity I saw you
first, Le Gardeur!" added she, pulling him by the hair.

"I doubt you would throw me to the fishes were Pierre my rival,
Angelique," replied he, merrily; "but I am in no danger: Pierre's
affections are, I fancy, forestalled in a quarter where I need not be
jealous of his success."

"I shall at any rate not be jealous of your sister, Le Gardeur," said
Angelique, raising her face to his, suffused with a blush; "if I do not
give you the love you ask for it is because you have it already; but ask
no more at present from me--this, at least, is yours," said she, kissing
him twice, without prudery or hesitation.

That kiss from those adored lips sealed his fate. It was the
first--better it had been the last, better he had never been born than
have drank the poison of her lips.

"Now answer me my questions, Le Gardeur," added she, after a pause of
soft blandishments.

Le Gardeur felt her fingers playing with his hair, as, like Delilah, she
cut off the seven locks of his strength.

"There is a lady at Beaumanoir; tell me who and what she is, Le
Gardeur," said she.

He would not have hesitated to betray the gate of Heaven at her
prayer; but, as it happened, Le Gardeur could not give her the special
information she wanted as to the particular relation in which that lady
stood to the Intendant. Angelique with wonderful coolness talked away,
and laughed at the idea of the Intendant's gallantry. But she could get
no confirmation of her suspicions from Le Gardeur. Her inquiry was for
the present a failure, but she made Le Gardeur promise to learn what he
could and tell her the result of his inquiries.

They sat long conversing together, until the bell of the Recollets
sounded the hour of midnight. Angelique looked in the face of Le Gardeur
with a meaning smile, as she counted each stroke with her dainty finger
on his cheek. When finished, she sprang up and looked out of the lattice
at the summer night.

The stars were twinkling like living things. Charles's Wain lay inverted
in the northern horizon; Bootes had driven his sparkling herd down the
slope of the western sky. A few thick tresses of her golden hair hung
negligently over her bosom and shoulders. She placed her arm in Le
Gardeur's, hanging heavily upon him as she directed his eyes to the
starry heavens. The selfish schemes she carried in her bosom dropped for
a moment to the ground. Her feet seemed to trample the