diguieres? I have committed no sedition."

"But it is almost as bad to give aid to one who is wanted for the crime.
That is the law."

"What do I care for the law? Do you imagine that the law will presume to
touch me?"

"Of course there is that. You are sheltered by one of the abuses I
complained of at Rennes. I was forgetting."

"Complain of it as much as you please, but meanwhile profit by it. Come,
Andre, do as I tell you. Get down from your horse." And then, as he
still hesitated, she stretched out and caught him by the arm. Her voice
was vibrant with earnestness. "Andre, you don't realize how serious is
your position. If these people take you, it is almost certain that you
will be hanged. Don't you realize it? You must not go to Gavrillac.
You must go away at once, and lie completely lost for a time until this
blows over. Indeed, until my uncle can bring influence to bear to obtain
your pardon, you must keep in hiding."

"That will be a long time, then," said Andre-Louis. "M. de Kercadiou has
never cultivated friends at court."

"There is M. de La Tour d'Azyr," she reminded him, to his astonishment.

"That man!" he cried, and then he laughed. "But it was chiefly against
him that I aroused the resentment of the people of Rennes. I should have
known that all my speech was not reported to you."

"It was, and that part of it among the rest."

"Ah! And yet you are concerned to save me, the man who seeks the life of
your future husband at the hands either of the law or of the people? Or
is it, perhaps, that since you have seen his true nature revealed in the
murder of poor Philippe, you have changed your views on the subject of
becoming Marquise de La Tour d'Azyr?"

"You often show yourself without any faculty of deductive reasoning."

"Perhaps. But hardly to the extent of imagining that M. de La Tour
d'Azyr will ever lift a finger to do as you suggest."

"In which, as usual, you are wrong. He will certainly do so if I ask
him."

"If you ask him?" Sheer horror rang in his voice.

"Why, yes. You see, I have not yet said that I will be Marquise de
La Tour d'Azyr. I am still considering. It is a position that has
its advantages. One of them is that it ensures a suitor's complete
obedience."

"So, so. I see the crooked logic of your mind. You might go so far as
to say to him: 'Refuse me this, and I shall refuse to be your marquise.'
You would go so far as that?"

"At need, I might."

"And do you not see