_hasn't_ seen."

She checked a quick answer on her lips, and for a moment or two we faced
each other silently. A sudden sense of intimacy, of complicity almost,
came over me. What was it that the girl's silence was crying out to me?

"If I take him away now he won't have seen you at all," I continued.

She stood under the bare trees, keeping her eyes on me. "Then take
him away now!" she retorted; and as she spoke I saw her face change,
decompose into deadly apprehension and as quickly regain its usual calm.
From where she stood she faced the courtyard, and glancing in the same
direction I saw the throng of villagers coming out of the chateau. "Take
him away--take him away at once!" she passionately commanded; and the
next minute Jean de Rechamp detached himself from the group and began to
limp down the walk in our direction.

What was I to do? I can't exaggerate the sense of urgency Mlle. Malo's
appeal gave me, or my faith in her sincerity. No one who had seen her
meeting with Rechamp the night before could have doubted her feeling for
him: if she wanted him away it was not because she did not delight in
his presence. Even now, as he approached, I saw her face veiled by
a faint mist of emotion: it was like watching a fruit ripen under a
midsummer sun. But she turned sharply from the house and began to walk
on.

"Can't you give me a hint of your reason?" I suggested as I followed.

"My reason? I've given it!" I suppose I looked incredulous, for she
added in a lower voice: "I don't want him to hear--yet--about all the
horrors."

"The horrors? I thought there had been none here."

"All around us--" Her voice became a whisper. "Our friends... our
neighbours... every one...."

"He can hardly avoid hearing of that, can he? And besides, since you're
all safe and happy.... Look here," I broke off, "he's coming after us.
Don't we look as if we were running away?"

She turned around, suddenly paler; and in a stride or two Rechamp was
at our side. He was pale too; and before I could find a pretext for
slipping away he had begun to speak. But I saw at once that he didn't
know or care if I was there.

"What was the name of the officer in command who was quartered here?" he
asked, looking straight at the girl.

She raised her eye-brows slightly. "Do you mean to say that after
listening for three hours to every inhabitant of Bechamp you haven't
found that out?"

"They all call him something different. My grandmother s