brown hair was bound with a
piece of black velvet ribbon. Her beauty was deeper than I had ever seen
it; a peculiar gravity seemed to have added years to her life. As she
passed me her sleeve brushed my arm, as it did that day I was arrested
in her father's house. She started, as though I had touched her fingers,
but only half turned toward me, for her mind was wholly occupied with
the room where Doltaire was.

At that moment Gabord coughed slightly, and she turned quickly to him.
Her eyes flashed intelligence, and presently, as she passed in, a
sort of hope seemed to have come on her face to lighten its painful
pensiveness. The Mother Superior entered with her, the door closed, and
then, after a little, the Mother came out again. As she did so I saw a
look of immediate purpose in her face, and her hurrying step persuaded
me she was bent on some project of espial. So I made a sign to Gabord
and followed her. As she turned the corner of the hallway just beyond,
I stepped forward silently and watched her enter a room that would, I
knew, be next to this we guarded.

Listening at the door for a moment, I suddenly and softly turned the
handle and entered, to see the good Mother with a panel drawn in the
wall before her, and her face set to it. She stepped back as I shut the
door and turned the key in the lock. I put my finger to my lips, for she
seemed about to cry out.

"Hush!" said I. "I watch for those who love her. I am here to serve
her--and you."

"You are a servant of the Seigneur's?" she said, the alarm passing out
of her face.

"I served the Seigneur, good Mother," I answered, "and I would lay down
my life for ma'm'selle."

"You would hear?" she asked, pointing to the panel.

I nodded.

"You speak French not like a Breton or Norman," she added. "What is your
province?"

"I am an Auvergnian."

She said no more, but motioned to me, enjoining silence also by a sign,
and I stood with her beside the panel. Before it was a piece of tapestry
which was mere gauze in one place, and I could see through and hear
perfectly. The room we were in was at least four feet higher than the
other, and we looked down on its occupants.

"Presently, holy Mother," said I, "all shall be told true to you, if you
wish it. It is not your will to watch and hear; it is because you
love the lady. But I love her, too, and I am to be trusted. It is not
business for such as you."

She saw my implied rebuke, and said, as I thought a l