he pair of us. A gesture of the newcomer's arm
motioned him to the door. But he had one sentence more to hear before he
was suffered to slink away.

"Kings, my lord," said M. de Perrencourt, "may be compelled to set spies
about the persons of others. They do not need them about their own."

Carford turned suddenly white, and his teeth set. I thought that he
would fly at the man who rebuked him so scornfully; but such an outbreak
meant death; he controlled himself. He passed out, and Louis, with a
careless laugh, seated himself on my bed. I stood respectfully opposite
to him.

"Make your preparations," said he. "In half an hour's time we depart."

I obeyed him, setting about the task of filling my saddle-bags with my
few possessions. He watched me in silence for awhile. At last he spoke.

"I have chosen you to go with me," he said, "because although you know a
thing, you don't speak of it, and although you see a thing, you can
appear blind."

I remembered that Madame thought my blindness deficient, but I received
the compliment in silence.

"These great qualities," he pursued, "make a man's fortune. You shall
come with me to Paris."

"To Paris, sir?"

"Yes. I'll find work for you there, and those who do my work lack
neither reward nor honour. Come, sir, am I not as good a King to serve
as another?"

"Your Majesty is the greatest Prince in Christendom," said I. For such
indeed all the world held him.

"Yet even the greatest Prince in Christendom fears some things," said
he, smiling.

"Surely nothing, sir?"

"Why, yes. A woman's tongue, a woman's tears, a woman's rage, a woman's
jealousy; I say, Mr Dale, a woman's jealousy."

It was well that my preparations were done, or they had never been done.
I was staring at him now with my hands dropped to my side.

"I am married," he pursued. "That is little." And he shrugged his
shoulders.

"Little enough at Courts, in all conscience," thought I; perhaps my face
betrayed something of the thought, for King Louis smiled.

"But I am more than a husband," he pursued. "I am a lover, Mr Dale."

Not knowing what comment to make on this, I made none. I had heard the
talk about his infatuation, but it was not for me to mention the lady's
name. Nor did the King name her. He rose and approached me, looking full
in my face.

"You are neither a husband nor a lover?" he asked.

"Neither, sir."

"You know Mistress Quinton?"

"Yes, sir."

He was close to me now, an