ows how this night will end. I have told
them that I can make you love me."

Almost Gabrielle smiled. "You have told them the truth."

The hunchback continued: "I have told them that I can persuade you to
marry me."

Gabrielle said again: "You have told them the truth."

The hunchback sighed. He was still cutting his strange capers, waving his
extended fingers over the girl's head and making grotesque genuflections,
but he spoke, and his voice was full of passion and his voice was full of
pain as he whispered: "Gabrielle, Gabrielle, I have always loved you,
shall always love you. But you must not love me, that would never do.
Nevers's daughter cannot, may not, love the soldier of fortune."

"Yet you ask me to marry you?" Gabrielle said.

The hunchback answered: "To save you from Gonzague. You would have died
to-night but for this mad plan of mine. Once you are safe, you can easily
be set free from me."

There was that in Gabrielle's eyes which the hunchback could not see.
There was that in Gabrielle's heart which the hunchback could not read.
Gabrielle appreciated the nobility of the man who was trying to save her,
but Gabrielle also understood the strength of her own love and her own
determination, but she showed nothing of this in her words. All she said
was: "Well, I am not safe yet. What do you want me to do?"

The hunchback instructed her. "Just say yes to the questions I shall ask
you now aloud. Speak as if you were in a dream."

He drew back now a little from the girl, and turned triumphantly to the
others, with the air of one who has accomplished a very difficult task.
Then he approached Gabrielle again.

"Do you love me?" he asked, in a clear voice which carried to all parts
of the room.

And the girl, looking straight before her like one that spoke in a
trance, answered, clearly: "I love you with all my heart, for ever and
ever and ever."

Gonzague, who had been watching the proceedings with cynical curiosity,
was the most amazed of the amazed spectators. "Here is a miracle."

"I'll not believe it," Chavernay protested.

The hunchback made an angry gesture to command silence. "Hush!" he said,
and then again addressed the girl: "Will you be my wife?"

Gabrielle answered as clearly as before: "I will be your wife gladly. In
joy and in sorrow, I will be your wife so long as I live."

The hunchback turned triumphantly to the company. "Gentlemen, gentlemen,
you see that my suit prospers. The poor