p would have spoken or stirred to break that
well-earned rest; but sounds from without were not long in opening his
eyes, and as they met her intent gaze, he smiled and said, 'Good morrow,
sweet heart! What, learning how ugly a fellow is come back to thee?'

'No, indeed! I was trying to trace thine old likeness, and then
wondering how I ever liked thy boyish face better than the noble look
thou bearest now!'

'Ah! when I set out to come to thee, I was a walking rainbow; yet I was
coxcomb enough to think thou wouldst overlook it.'

'Show me those cruel strokes,' she said; 'I see one'--and her finger
traced the seam as poor King Charles had done--'but where is the one my
wicked cousin called by that frightful name?'

'Nay, verily, that sweet name spared my life! A little less spite at my
peach cheek, and I had been sped, and had not lisped and stammered all
my days in honour of _le baiser d'Eustacie_!' and as he pushed aside his
long golden silk moustache to show the ineffaceable red and purple scar,
he added, smiling, 'It has waited long for its right remedy.'

At that moment the door in the rood-screen opened. Captain Falconnet's
one eye stared in amazement, and from beneath his gray moustache
thundered forth the word 'Comment!' in accents fit to wake the dead.

Was this Esperance, the most irreproachable of pastor's daughters and
widows? 'What, Madame, so soon as your good father is under ground? At
least I thought ONE woman could be trusted; but it seems we must see to
the wounded ourselves.'

She blushed, but stood her ground; and Berenger shouted, 'She is my
wife, sir!--my wife whom I have sought so long!'

'That must be as Madame la Duchesse chooses,' said the Captain. 'She is
under her charge, and must be sent to her as soon as this _canaille_ is
cleared off. To your rooms, Madame!'

'I am her husband!' again cried Berenger. 'We have been married sixteen
years.'

'You need not talk to me of dowry; Madame la Duchesse will settle that,
if you are fool enough to mean anything by it. No, no, Mademoiselle,
I've no time for folly. Come with me, sir, and see if that be true which
they say of the rogues outside.'

And putting his arm into Berenger's, he fairly carried him
off, discoursing by the way on _feu_ M. l'Amiral's saying that
'over-strictness in camp was perilous, since a young saint, an old
devil,' but warning him that this was prohibited gear, as he was
responsible for the young woman to Madame la D