here sat great strong Roberta, the Marquise of Grez and Bye,
holding in the hollow of her arm a beautiful American woman who had
herself contrived a monstrous plan to let a quantity of the lifeblood
of France to turn into gold for her own vain uses. If to throttle her
then and there with my bare strong hands had insured the great big
needful mules to France, and saved the honor of my Gouverneur of the
State of Harpeth, and my Uncle, the General Robert, I think I might
have had a great temptation to administer that death to her; but
instead I held her now closer in my arm and I began to plot her to
death in any other way I could discover, so that her intrigue should
die with her.

"Of a truth, beautiful Madam, the poor old Uncle, the General Robert,
must not be allowed to interfere with such a beautiful plan as you
have for supplying those very fine strong mules from the State of
Harpeth to poor struggling France, and I will join with you in
convincing the stupid Gouverneur Faulkner that such must not be the
case. You will direct me, will you not? I am very young and I have but
so lately come to this land that I do not know--I do not feel exactly
what you call at home." And I spoke again with beseeching humility.

"We'll do it for France together, boy," she whispered as she turned in
my arm and pressed herself against my raven attire above my heart held
in restraint by that towel of the bath. "And then you can claim from
me any--reward--you--"

Just at this lovely moment, when the beautiful Madam Whitworth had
thrown herself into my arms and I had been obliged by my cunning to
hold her there instead of flinging her to the floor as I naturally
desired, there arrived at the door of the room which we were occupying
with our plotting, my tall and awful Uncle, the General Robert, and
looked down upon us with the lightnings of a storm in his eyes. Then,
before I could make exclamation and betray his presence to the lady in
my arms, whose back was turned in his direction, he had disappeared.
Did I betray that presence to the lady? I did not. I decided that it
would be much to the advantage of the affair to have the lady in
ignorance of his knowledge.

"You must go now, boy," she said at about the moment in which I could
no longer keep my dissembling alive. "Send the Governor in here to me,
for it is about the time I had promised to dance with him. I want to
talk with him and try to make him see some at least of this matter