-bank below. He had never gone, because that very night she
had come to Morteyn, and since then he had seen her every day at
her own home.

As he stood he could hear the river Lisse whispering, calling
him. He would go--just to see the hidden rendezvous--for old
love's sake; it was a step from the path, no more.

Then that strange instinct, that sudden certainty that comes at
times to all, seized him, and he knew that Lorraine was there by
the river; he knew it as surely as though he saw her before him.

And she was there, standing by the still water, silver chains
drooping over the velvet bodice, scarlet skirt hanging brilliant
and heavy as a drooping poppy in the sun.

"Dear me," she said, very calmly, "I thought you had quite
forgotten me. Why have you not been to the Chateau, Monsieur
Marche?"

And this, after she had told him to go away and not to return!
Wise in the little busy ways of the world of men, he was
uneducated in the ways of a maid.

Therefore he was speechless.

"And now," she said, with the air of an early Christian
tete-a-tete with Nero--"and now you do not speak to me? Why?"

"Because," he blurted out, "I thought you did not care to have
me!"

Surprise, sorrow, grief gave place to pity in her eyes.

"What a silly man!" she observed. "I am going to sit down on the
moss. Are you intending to call upon my father? He is still in
the turret. If you can spare a moment I will tell you what he is
doing."

Yes, he had a moment to spare--not many moments--he hoped she
would understand that!--but he had one or two little ones at her
disposal.

She read this in his affected hesitation. She would make him pay
dearly for it. Vengeance should be hers!

He stood a moment, eying the water as though it had done him
personal injury. Then he sat down.

"The balloon is almost ready, steering-gear and all," she said.
"I saw papa yesterday for a moment; I tried to get him to stay
with me, but he could not."

She looked wistfully across the river.

Jack watched her. His heart ached for her, and he bent nearer.

"Forgive me for causing you any unhappiness," he said. "Will
you?"

"Yes."

Oh! where was her vengeance now? So far beneath her!

"These four days have been the most wretched days to me, the most
unhappy I have ever lived," he said. The emotion in his voice
brought the soft colour to her face. She did not answer; she
would have if she had wished to check him.

"I will never again, as