"Ah!" thought the count, "there's an inflection in her voice, and a
look in her eye which shows me plainly I shall soon be /on terms/ with
her; and faith! to get her, I'll believe all she wants me to."
He offered her his hand, for dinner was now announced. Mademoiselle de
Verneuil did the honors with a politeness and tact which could only
have been acquired by the life and training of a court.
"Leave us," she whispered to Hulot as they left the table. "You will
only frighten him; whereas, if I am alone with him I shall soon find
out all I want to know; he has reached the point where a man tells me
everything he thinks, and sees through my eyes only."
"But afterwards?" said Hulot, evidently intending to claim the
prisoner.
"Afterwards, he is to be free--free as air," she replied.
"But he was taken with arms in his hand."
"No," she said, making one of those sophistical jokes with which women
parry unanswerable arguments, "I had disarmed him. Count," she said,
turning back to him as Hulot departed, "I have just obtained your
liberty, but--nothing for nothing," she added, laughing, with her head
on one side as if to interrogate him.
"Ask all, even my name and my honor," he cried, intoxicated. "I lay
them at your feet."
He advanced to seize her hand, trying to make her take his passion for
gratitude; but Mademoiselle de Verneuil was not a woman to be thus
misled.
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