as strong and bitter, and he poured out his heart without
reserve. Carford listened, saying little, but being very attentive and
keeping his shrewd eyes on the other's face. Indignation carried
Fontelles back and forwards along the length of the room in restless
paces; Carford sat in a chair, quiet and wary, drinking in all that the
angry gentleman said. My Lord Carford was not one who believed hastily
in the honour and honesty of his fellow-men, nor was he prone to expect
a simple heart rather than a long head; but soon he perceived that the
Frenchman was in very truth ignorant of what lay behind his mission, and
that Barbara's usage of him caused genuine and not assumed offence. The
revelation set my lord a-thinking.

"And she sends for you to advise her?" cried Fontelles. "That, my
friend, is good; you can advise her only in one fashion."

"I don't know that," said Carford, feeling his way.

"It is because you don't know all. I have spoken gently to her, seeking
to win her by persuasion. But to you I may speak plainly. I have direct
orders from the King to bring her and to suffer no man to stop me.
Indeed, my dear lord, there is no choice open to you. You wouldn't
resist the King's command?"

Yet Barbara demanded that he should resist even the King's command.
Carford said nothing, and the impetuous Frenchman ran on:

"Nay, it would be the highest offence to myself to hinder me. Indeed, my
lord, all my regard for you could not make me suffer it. I don't know
what this lady has against me, nor who has put this nonsense in her
head. It cannot be you? You don't doubt my honour? You don't taunt me
when I call myself a gentleman?"

He came to a pause before Carford, expecting an answer to his hot
questions. He saw offence in the mere fact that Carford was still
silent.

"Come, my lord," he cried, "I do not take pleasure in seeing you think
so long. Isn't your answer easy?" He assumed an air of challenge.

Carford was, I have no doubt, most plagued and perplexed. He could have
dealt better with a knave than with this fiery gentleman. Barbara had
demanded of him that he should resist even the King's command. He might
escape that perilous obligation by convincing Fontelles himself that he
was a tool in hands less honourable than his own; then the Frenchman
would in all likelihood abandon his enterprise. But with him would go
Carford's hold on Barbara and his best prospect of winning her; for in
her trouble lay his ch