at, according to the
formal French fashion, he's going to do it to-morrow. Before I give him
an answer I must know that he is such a man as I could marry."

"You would have thought him so if you hadn't heard this about me."

"Even so, it's better for me to have heard it. Any prudent person would
tell you that. What I'm going to ask you to do now will not be for your
sake; it will be for mine."

"You're going to ask me to do something?"

"Yes; to see Monsieur de Bienville."

Diane recoiled with an expression of dismay.

"I know it will be hard for you," Miss Grimston pursued, "and I wouldn't
ask you to do it if it were not the straightest way out of a perplexing
situation. I've confidence enough in him to believe that when he has
seen you and heard your story, he'll act according to the dictates of a
nature which I know to be essentially honorable, even if it's weak. You
can see what that will mean to us all. It will not only clear you and
rehabilitate him, but it will bring happiness to me."

There was something in the way in which these brief statements were made
that gave them the nature of an appeal. The very difficulty of the
reserved heart in speaking out, the shame-flushed cheek--the subdued
voice--the halting breath--had on Diane a more potent effect than
eloquence. What was left of her own hope, too, at once put forth its
claim at the possibility of getting justice. It was a matter of taking
her courage in both hands, in one tremendous effort, but the fact that
this girl believed in her was a stimulus to making the attempt. Before
they parted--with stammering expressions of mutual sympathy--she had
given her word to do it.

XVI

In the degree to which masculine good looks and elegance are accessories
to impressing a maid's heart, the Marquis de Bienville had reason to be
sure of the effect he was producing, as he bent and kissed Miss Marion
Grimston's hand, in her aunt's drawing-room, on the following afternoon.
He was not surprised to detect the thrill that shot through her being at
his act of homage, and communicated itself back to him; for he was
tolerably certain of her love. That had been, to all intents and
purposes, confessed more than two years ago; while, during the
intervening time, he had not lacked signs that the gift once bestowed
had never been withdrawn. He had stood for a few seconds at the
threshold on entering the room, just to rejoice consciously at his great
good-fortune. S