, or Sir Amadis of sixteen could hardly have prevailed
against the dragon."

This time Adele de Pignerolles was seriously angry:

"Monsieur le Duc de Carolan," she said quietly, "you have honoured
me by professing some admiration of my poor person, and methinks
that good taste would have demanded that you would have feigned, at
least, some interest in the boy who championed my cause. I was
wrong, even in merry jest, to touch on such a subject, but I
thought that as French gentlemen you would understand that I was
half serious, half jesting at myself for this girlish love of mine.
He is not here to defend himself against your uncourteous remarks;
but, Monsieur le Duc, allow me to inform you that the fact that the
person who insulted me paid for it almost with his life was no
proof of his great want of skill, for monsieur my father will
inform you, if you care to ask him, that had you stood opposite to
my boy hero, the result would probably have been exactly the same;
for, as I have often heard him say that this boy was fully a match
for himself; I imagine that the chance of a nobleman who, with all
his merits, has not, so far as I have heard, any great pretensions
to special skill with his sword, would be slight indeed."

The duke, with an air of bitter mortification on his face, bowed
before the indignant tone in which Adele spoke; and as the little
circle broke up, the rumour ran round the room that L'Anglaise had
snubbed the Duc de Carolan in a crushing manner.

Scarcely had the duke, with a few murmured excuses, withdrawn from
the group, than the marquis advanced towards his daughter with a
tall figure by his side.

"Adele," he said, "allow me to introduce to you the English officer
whose own unlucky fate threw him into my hands. He desires to have
the honour of your acquaintance. You may remember his name, for his
family lived in the county in which we passed some time. Lieutenant
Rupert Holliday, of the English dragoons."

Adele had not looked up as her father spoke. As he crossed the room
towards her she had glanced towards his companion, whose dress
showed him to be the English officer who was, as she knew, with
him; but something in her father's tone of voice, still more the
sentences with which he introduced the name, warned her that this
was the surprise of which he had spoken, and the name, when it came
at last, was almost expected. Had it not been for the manner in
which she had just been speaking, a