Seneschal; yet he grinned.

"I ask you--have I not suffered inconvenience enough already in the
service of Mademoiselle de La Vauvraye that you can blame me if I refuse
to go a single step further than my orders bid me?"

The Seneschal stared at him now in increasing dismay. Had his own
interests been less at issue he could have indulged his mirth at the
other's fiery indignation at the inconveniences he recited. As it was,
he had nothing to say; no thought or feeling other than what concerned
finding a way of escape from the net that seemed to be closing in about
him--how to seem to serve the Queen without turning against the Dowager
of Condillac; how to seem to serve the Dowager without opposing the
wishes of the Queen.

"A plague on the girl!" he growled, unconsciously uttering his thoughts
aloud. "The devil take her!"

Garnache smiled grimly. "That is a bond of sympathy between us," said
he. "I have said those very words a hundred times--a thousand times,
indeed--between Paris and Grenoble. Yet I scarcely see that you can damn
her with as much justice as can I.

"But there, monsieur; all this is unprofitable. You have my message. I
shall spend the day at Grenoble, and take a well-earned rest. By this
time to-morrow I shall be ready to start upon my return journey. I
shall have then the honour to wait upon you again, to the end that I
may receive from you the charge of Mademoiselle de La Vauvraye. I shall
count upon your having her here, in readiness to set out with me, by
noon to-morrow."

He bowed, with a flourish of his plumed hat, and would with that have
taken his departure but that the Seneschal stayed him.

"Monsieur, monsieur," he cried, in piteous affright, "you do not know
the Dowager of Condillac."

"Why, no. What of it?"

"What of it? Did you know her, you would understand that she is not the
woman to be driven. I may order her in the Queen's name to deliver up
Mademoiselle de La Vauvraye. But she will withstand me."

"Withstand you?" echoed Garnache, frowning into the face of this fat
man, who had risen also, brought to his feet by excitement. "Withstand
you--you, the Lord Seneschal of Dauphiny? You are amusing yourself at my
expense."

"But I tell you that she will," the other insisted in a passion. "You
may look for the girl in vain tomorrow unless you go to Condillac
yourself and take her."

Garnache drew himself up and delivered his answer in a tone that was
final.

"You are the go