orthcoming. He had been to seek them again that morning, only to be
again put off.

Monsieur de Garnache had considerable doubt, born of his yesterday's
interview with the Seneschal, that Mademoiselle de La Vauvraye would
be delivered into his charge as he had stipulated. His relief was,
therefore, considerable, upon being ushered into Tressan's presence,
to find a lady in cloak and hat, dressed as for a journey, seated in a
chair by the great fireplace.

Tressan advanced to meet him, a smile of cordial welcome on his lips,
and they bowed to each other in formal greeting.

"You see, monsieur," said the Seneschal, waving a plump hand in the
direction of the lady, "that you have been obeyed. Here is your charge."

Then to the lady: "This is Monsieur de Garnache," he announced, "of whom
I have already told you, who is to conduct you to Paris by order of Her
Majesty.

"And now, my good friends, however great the pleasure I derive from your
company, I care not how soon you set out, for I have some prodigious
arrears of work upon my hands."

Garnache bowed to the lady, who returned his greeting by an inclination
of the head, and his keen eyes played briskly over her. She was a
plump-faced, insipid child, with fair hair and pale blue eyes, stolid
and bovine in their expressionlessness.

"I am quite ready, monsieur," said she, rising as she spoke, and
gathering her cloak about her; and Garnache remarked that her voice had
the southern drawl, her words the faintest suggestion of a patois. It
was amazing how a lady born and bred could degenerate in the rusticity
of Dauphiny. Pigs and cows, he made no doubt, had been her chief
objectives. Yet, even so, he thought he might have expected that she
would have had more to say to him than just those five words expressing
her readiness to depart. He had looked for some acknowledgment of
satisfaction at his presence, some utterances of gratitude either to
himself or to the Queen-Regent for the promptness with which she had
been succoured. He was disappointed, but he showed nothing of it, as
with a simple inclination of the head--

"Good!" said he. "Since you are ready and Monsieur le Seneschal is
anxious to be rid of us, let us by all means be moving. You have a long
and tedious journey before you, mademoiselle."

"I--I am prepared for that," she faltered.

He stood aside, and bending from the waist he made a sweeping gesture
towards the door with the hand that held his hat. T