at his affair by a
side-wind.

But Claire clapped her hands joyously, glad to get her own way on such
easy terms.

"Of course, Jean-Marie, I will knit you a pair of hose--most
gladly--winter woollen ones of the right Canigon fashion----"

"I did not mean one pair only," said the miller, with a slightly more
brisk air, and an attempt at a knowing smile, "but--for all my life!"

"Come, you are greedy," cried Claire; "and must your mother go
barefoot--and your brother the Professor, and Don Jordy, and----"

She was about to add another name, which ought to have been that of
Jean-aux-Choux, but was not. She stopped, however, the current of her
gay words swiftly arrested by that unspoken name.

"Jean-Marie, answer me," she said, standing with her back resolutely to
the door, "there is a thing I must know. Tell me, as you are an honest
man, what became of Jean d'Albret that night on the sand-dunes at
Collioure? It is in my mind that you know more than you have told me.
You do know, my brave Alcalde! I am sure of it. For it was you who came
to borrow my hood and mantle, also my long riding-cape to give to him.
And I have never seen them since. If, then, this Abbe John is a thief
and a robber, you are his accomplice. Nothing better. Come--out with
it!"

Jean-Marie stood mumbling faintly words without order or significance.

Claire crossed her arms and set her back to the oaken panels. The miller
would gladly have escaped by the window, but the sill was high.
Moreover, he felt that escalade hardly became either his age or habit of
body.

Therefore, like many another in a like difficulty, he took refuge in
prevarication--to use which well requires, in a man, much practice and
considerable solidity of treatment. Women are naturally gifted in this
direction.

"He bade--I mean he forbade--me to reveal the matter to you!"

"Then it had to do with me," she cried, fixing the wretched man with her
forefinger; "now I have a right--I demand to know. I will not stay a
moment longer in the house if I am not told."

As she spoke Claire turned the key twice in the lock, extracted it, and
slid it into her pocket. These are not the usual preliminaries for
quitting a house for ever in hot indignation. But the ex-Alcalde was too
flustered to notice the inconsistency.

"Speak!" she cried, stamping her foot. And the broad, serious-faced
Jean-Marie found, among all his wise saws and instances, none wherewith
to answer her. "Where d