not understand you, Robert," said she. "I do not--" Here she broke
off, looking, looking at me, and trembling a little.

Then I stooped and whispered softly in her ear. She gave a little cry,
and drew back from me; yet instantly her hand came out and caught my
arm.

"Robert, Robert! I can not, I dare not!" she cried softly. "No, no, it
may not be," she added in a whisper of fear.

I went to the alcove, drew back the curtain, and asked Mr. Wainfleet to
step forth.

"Sir," said I, picking up my Prayer Book and putting it in his hands, "I
beg you to marry this lady and myself."

He paused, dazed. "Marry you--here--now?" he asked shakingly.

"Before ten minutes go round, this lady must be my wife," said I.

"Mademoiselle Duvarney, you--" he began.

"Be pleased, dear sir, to open the book at 'Wilt thou have,'" said I.
"The lady is a Catholic; she has not the consent of her people; but when
she is my wife, made so by you, whose consent need we ask? Can you not
tie us fast enough, a man and woman of sense sufficient, but you must
pause here? Is the knot you tie safe against picking and stealing?"

I had touched his vanity and his ecclesiasticism. "Married by me," he
replied, "once chaplain to the Bishop of London, you have a knot that no
sword can cut. I am in full orders. My parish is in Boston itself."

"You will hand a certificate to my wife to-morrow, and you will uphold
this marriage against all gossip?" asked I.

"Against all France and all England," he answered, roused now.

"Then come," I urged.

"But I must have a witness," he interposed, opening the book.

"You shall have one in due time," said I. "Go on. When the marriage is
performed, and at the point where you shall proclaim us man and wife, I
will have a witness."

I turned to Alixe, and found her pale and troubled. "Oh, Robert,
Robert!" she cried, "it can not be. Now, now I am afraid, for the first
time in my life, clear, the first time!"

"Dearest lass in the world," I said, "it must be. I shall not go to your
father's. To-morrow night, I make my great stroke for freedom, and when
I am free I shall return to fetch my wife."

"You will try to escape from here to-morrow?" she asked, her face
flushing finely.

"I will escape or die," I answered; "but I shall not think of death.
Come--come and say with me that we shall part no more--in spirit no
more; that, whatever comes, you and I have fulfilled our great hope,
though under the shadow of th