ossession of it."

"Madame, the more I listen to you, the more determined I am that you
shall become my wife. I admire the versatility of your mind, the
coolness of your logic. Not one woman in a thousand could talk to so
much effect, when imprisonment or death . . ."

"Or marriage!"

". . . faced her as surely as it faces you."

"Permit me to see the paper, Monsieur."

Some men would have surrendered to the seductiveness of her voice; not
so the vicomte.

"Scarcely, Madame," smiling.

"How am I to know that it is genuine? Allow me to glance at it?"

"And witness you tear it up, or . . . burn it like a love-letter?"
shrewdly.

Madame stiffened in her chair.

"Have you ever burned a love-letter, Madame?" asked the vicomte.

Madame turned pale from rage and shame. The rage nearly overcame the
fear and terror which she was so admirably concealing.

"Have you?" pitilessly.

"You . . . ?"

"Yes," intuitively. He touched the particles of burnt paper and
laughed.

"You were in this room?"

"I was. It was not intentional eavesdropping; my word of honor, as to
that. I came in here, having an unimportant engagement with a friend.
He was late. While I waited, in walked Monsieur le Chevalier, then
yourself."

"Monsieur, you might have made known your presence."

"It is true that I might; but I should have missed a very fine comedy.
Madame, I compliment you. How well you have kept undiscovered, even
undreamt of, this charming intrigue!"

Madame gazed at the door and wondered if she could reach it before he
could.

"So, sometimes you are called 'Diane'? You are no longer the huntress;
you are Daphne!"

"Monsieur!"

"And you would turn into a laurel tree! My faith, Madame, it was a
charming scene! You are as erudite as a student fresh from the
Sorbonne."

"Monsieur, this is far away from the subject."

"Let me see; there was a line worthy of Monsieur de Saumaise at his
best. Ah, yes! 'I kiss your handsome grey eyes a thousand times'! Ah
well, let us give the Chevalier credit; he certainly has a handsome
pair of eyes, as many a dame and demoiselle at court will attest. It
was truly a delightful letter; only the music of it was somewhat
inharmonious to my ears."

"Take care, Monsieur, that I do not choose the block. I am not wholly
without courage."

"Pardon me! Jealousy has an evil sting. I ask you to pardon me.
Besides, it was evident that you had some definite purpose in trifli