-warrant."

Anne crossed the room and put her arms round her companion, who
accepted the caress with moist eyes.

"You will have me weeping in a moment, Gabrielle," said Anne.

"Let us weep together, then; only I shall weep from pure rage."

"There is peace in the convent," murmured Anne.

"Peace is as the heart is; and mine shall never know peace. I have
been disillusioned too soon. I should go mad in a convent. Did I not
pass my youth in one,--to what end?"

"If only you loved a good man."

"Or even a man," whimsically. "Go on with the thought."

"The mere loving would make you happy."

Madame searched Anne's blue eyes. "Dear heart, are you not hiding
something from me? Your tone is so mournful. Can it be?" as if
suddenly illumined within.

"Can what be?" asked Anne, nervously.

"That you have left your heart in France."

"Oh, I have not left my heart in France, Gabrielle. Do you not feel it
beating against your own?"

"Who can he be?" musingly.

"Gabrielle, Gabrielle!" reproachfully.

"Very well, dear. If you have a secret I should be the last to force
it from you."

"See!" cried Anne, suddenly and eagerly; "there is Monsieur du Cevennes
and his friend coming up the path. Do you not think that there is
something manly about the Chevalier's head?"

"I will study it some day; that is, if I feel the desire."

"Do you really hate him?"

"Hate him? Faith, no; that would be admitting that he interested me."

The Chevalier and the poet carried axes. They had been laboring since
five o'clock that morning superintending the construction of a wharf.
In truth, they were well worth looking at: the boyishness of one and
the sober manliness of the other, the clear eyes, tanned skin, the
quick, strong limbs. The poet's eye was always roving, and he quickly
saw the two women in the window above.

"Paul, is not that a woman to be loved?" he said; with a gaiety which
was not spontaneous.

"Which one?" asked the Chevalier, diplomatically.

"The one with hair like the haze in the morning."

"The simile is good," confessed the Chevalier. "But there is something
in the eye which should warn a man."

"Eye? Can you tell the color of an eye from this distance? It's more
than I can do."

The Chevalier's tan became a shade darker. "Perhaps it was the
reflection of the sun."

Victor swung his hat from his head gallantly. The Chevalier bowed
stiffly; the pain in his heart stopped the smile wh