" Her smile took the
insult from her words.
"What do you ask for the gun?" said the count, laughing.
"Oh! more than I do for you."
"What is it?"
"Secrecy. Believe me, my dear count, a woman is never fathomed except
by a woman. I am certain that if you say one word of this, I shall be
murdered on my way to that ball. Yesterday I had warning enough. Yes,
that woman is quick to act. Ah! I implore you," she said, "contrive
that no harm shall come to me at the ball."
"You will be there under my protection," said the count, proudly.
"But," he added, with a doubtful air, "are you coming for the sake of
Montauran?"
"You wish to know more than I know myself," she answered, laughing.
"Now go," she added, after a pause. "I will take you to the gate of
the town myself, for this seems to me a cannibal warfare."
"Then you do feel some interest in me?" exclaimed the count. "Ah!
mademoiselle, permit me to hope that you will not be insensible to my
friendship--for that sentiment must content me, must it not?" he added
with a conceited air.
"Ah! diviner!" she said, putting on the gay expression a woman assumes
when she makes an avowal which compromises neither her dignity nor her
secret sentiments.
Then, having slipped on a pelisse, she accompanied him as far as the
Nid-aux-Crocs. When they reached the end of the path she said,
"Monsieur, be absolutely silent on all this; even to the marquis"; and
she laid her finger on both lips.
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