"
"Perhaps it fears you?" said the young man, rather satirically.
"We must respect her secrets," interposed Madame du Gua.
"Oh, madame, the secrets of a young girl who knows nothing of life but
its misfortunes are not interesting."
"But," answered Madame du Gua, wishing to continue a conversation
which might reveal to her all that she wanted to know, "the First
Consul seems to have excellent intentions. They say that he is going
to remove the disabilities of the /emigres/."
"That is true, madame," she replied, with rather too much eagerness,
"and if so, why do we rouse Brittany and La Vendee? Why bring civil
war into France?"
This eager cry, in which she seemed to share her own reproach, made
the young sailor quiver. He looked earnestly at her, but was unable to
detect either hatred or love upon her face. Her beautiful skin, the
delicacy of which was shown by the color beneath it, was impenetrable.
A sudden and invincible curiosity attracted him to this strange
creature, to whom he was already drawn by violent desires.
"Madame," said Mademoiselle de Verneuil, after a pause, "may I ask if
you are going to Mayenne?"
"Yes, mademoiselle," replied the young man with a questioning look.
"Then, madame," she continued, "as your son serves the Republic" (she
said the words with an apparently indifferent air, but she gave her
companions one of those furtive glances the art of which belongs to
women and diplomatists), "you must fear the Chouans, and an escort is
not to be despised.
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