whelming inclination to
weep and laugh, to cry and sing at one and the same time; but whether
this odd emotion sprang from the happenings in which she had had her
part, or from the exhilaration of that mad ride, she could not tell. No
doubt it sprang from both, owing a part to each. She controlled herself,
however. A shy, upward glance at the stern, set face of the man whose
arm encircled and held her fast had a curiously sobering effect upon
her. Their eyes met, and he smiled a friendly, reassuring smile, such as
a father might have bestowed upon a daughter.

"I do not think that they will charge me with blundering this time," he
said.

"Charge you with blundering?" she echoed; and the inflection of the
pronoun might have flattered him had he not reflected that it was
impossible she could have understood his allusion. And now she bethought
her that she had not thanked him--and the debt was a heavy one. He
had come to her aid in an hour when hope seemed dead. He had come
single-handed--save for his man Rabecque; and in a manner that was
worthy of being made the subject of an epic, he had carried her out
of Condillac, away from the terrible Dowager and her cut-throats. The
thought of them sent a shiver through her.

"Do you feel the cold?" he asked concernedly; and that the wind might
cut her less, he slackened speed.

"No, no," she cried, her alarm waking again at the thought of the
folk of Condillac. "Make haste! Go on, go on! Mon Dieu! if they should
overtake us!"

He looked over his shoulder. The road ran straight for over a half-mile
behind them, and not a living thing showed upon it.

"You need have no alarm," he smiled. "We are not pursued. They must
have realized the futility of attempting to overtake us. Courage,
mademoiselle. We shall be in Grenoble presently, and once there, you
will have nothing more to fear."

"You are sure of that?" she asked, and there was doubt in her voice.

He smiled reassuringly again. "The Lord Seneschal shall supply us with
an escort," he promised confidently.

"Still," she said, "we shall not stay there, I hope, monsieur."

"No longer than may be necessary to procure a coach for you."

"I am glad of that," said she. "I shall know no peace until Grenoble is
a good ten leagues behind us. The Marquise and her son are too powerful
there."

"Yet their might shall not prevail against the Queen's," he made reply.
And as now they rode amain she fell to thanking him, shyly at