She seemed to herself hanging over a gulf of which she
had wanted to know the depth, and listening to the fall of the stone
she had flung, at first heedlessly, into it.
"Well, it is my own affair," she said, with the gesture of a gambler.
"I should never pity a betrayed woman; she has no one but herself to
blame if she is abandoned. I shall know how to keep, either living or
dead, the man whose heart has once been mine. But," she added, with
some surprise and after a moment's silence, "where did you get your
knowledge of love, Francine?"
"Mademoiselle," said the peasant-woman, hastily, "hush, I hear steps
in the passage."
"Ah! not /his/ steps!" said Marie, listening. "But you are evading an
answer; well, well, I'll wait for it, or guess it."
Francine was right, however. Three taps on the door interrupted the
conversation. Captain Merle appeared, after receiving Mademoiselle de
Verneuil's permission to enter.
With a military salute to the lady, whose beauty dazzled him, the
soldier ventured on giving her a glance, but he found nothing better
to say than: "Mademoiselle, I am at your orders."
"Then you are to be my protector, in place of the commander, who
retires; is that so?"
"No, my superior is the adjutant-major Gerard, who has sent me here."
"Your commandant must be very much afraid of me," she said.
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