Milady saw him appear, pale as usual,
but with his eye inflamed and almost wild.

"Why do you sing thus, and with such a voice?" said he.

"Your pardon, sir," said Milady, with mildness. "I forgot that my songs
are out of place in this castle. I have perhaps offended you in your
creed; but it was without wishing to do so, I swear. Pardon me, then, a
fault which is perhaps great, but which certainly was involuntary."

Milady was so beautiful at this moment, the religious ecstasy in which
she appeared to be plunged gave such an expression to her countenance,
that Felton was so dazzled that he fancied he beheld the angel whom he
had only just before heard.

"Yes, yes," said he; "you disturb, you agitate the people who live in
the castle."

The poor, senseless young man was not aware of the incoherence of his
words, while Milady was reading with her lynx's eyes the very depths of
his heart.

"I will be silent, then," said Milady, casting down her eyes with all
the sweetness she could give to her voice, with all the resignation she
could impress upon her manner.

"No, no, madame," said Felton, "only do not sing so loud, particularly
at night."

And at these words Felton, feeling that he could not long maintain his
severity toward his prisoner, rushed out of the room.

"You have done right, Lieutenant," said the soldier. "Such songs
disturb the mind; and yet we become accustomed to them, her voice is so
beautiful."

54 CAPTIVITY: THE THIRD DAY

Felton had fallen; but there was still another step to be taken. He
must be retained, or rather he must be left quite alone; and Milady but
obscurely perceived the means which could lead to this result.

Still more must be done. He must be made to speak, in order that
he might be spoken to--for Milady very well knew that her greatest
seduction was in her voice, which so skillfully ran over the whole gamut
of tones from human speech to language celestial.

Yet in spite of all this seduction Milady might fail--for Felton was
forewarned, and that against the least chance. From that moment she
watched all his actions, all his words, from the simplest glance of his
eyes to his gestures--even to a breath that could be interpreted as a
sigh. In short, she studied everything, as a skillful comedian does
to whom a new part has been assigned in a line to which he is not
accustomed.

Face to face with Lord de Winter her plan of conduct was more easy. She
had laid that do