lied, rousing
herself, and looking at me indifferently 'I never gave you a favour.'

I bowed low. 'If you say you did not, mademoiselle, that is enough,' I
answered.

'Nay, but do not let me do you an injustice, M. de Marsac,' she
rejoined, speaking more quickly and in an altered tone. 'If you can show
me the favour I gave you, I shall, of course, be convinced. Seeing
is believing, you know,' she added, with a light nervous laugh, and a
gesture of something like shyness.

If I had not sufficiently regretted my carelessness, and loss of the bow
at the time, I did so now. I looked at her in silence, and saw her face,
that had for a moment shown signs of feeling, almost of shame, grow
slowly hard again.

'Well, sir?' she said impatiently. 'The proof is easy.'

'It was taken from me; I believe, by M. de Rosny,' I answered lamely,
wondering what ill-luck had led her to put the question and press it to
this point.

'It was taken from you!' she exclaimed, rising and confronting me with
the utmost suddenness, while her eyes flashed, and her little hand
crumpled the mask beyond future usefulness. 'It was taken from you,
sir!' she repeated, her voice and her whole frame trembling with
anger and disdain. 'Then I thank you, I prefer my version. Yours is
impossible. For let me tell you, when Mademoiselle de la Vire does
confer a favour, it will be on a man with the power and the wit--and the
constancy, to keep it, even from M. de Rosny!'

Her scorn hurt, though it did not anger me. I felt it to be in a measure
deserved, and raged against myself rather than against her. But aware
through all of the supreme importance of placing her in safety, I
subjected my immediate feelings to the exigencies of the moment and
stooped to an argument which would, I thought, have weight though
private pleading failed.

'Putting myself aside, mademoiselle,' I said, with more formality than I
had yet used, 'there is one consideration which must weigh with you. The
king--'

'The king!' she cried, interrupting me violently, her face hot with
passion and her whole person instinct with stubborn self-will. 'I shall
not see the king!'

'You will not see the king?' I repeated in amazement.

'No, I will not!' she answered, in a whirl of anger, scorn, and
impetuosity. 'There! I will not! I have been made a toy and a tool long
enough, M. de Marsac,' she continued, 'and I will serve others' ends no
more. I have made up my mind. Do not talk to me; yo