to the group near the door, and never knew the
risk he had run.

CHAPTER VI.

MADAME'S FRIGHT.

And we breathed again. The agony of suspense, which Bezers' pause had
created, passed away. But the night already seemed to us as a week of
nights. An age of experience, an aeon of adventures cut us off--as we
lay shaking behind the curtain--from Caylus and its life. Paris had
proved itself more treacherous than we had even expected to find it.
Everything and everyone shifted, and wore one face one minute, and one
another. We had come to save Pavannes' life at the risk of our own; we
found him to be a villain! Here was Mirepoix owning himself a
treacherous wretch, a conspirator against a woman; we sympathised with
him. The priest had come upon a work of charity and rescue; we loathed
the sound of his voice, and shrank from him, we knew not why, seeming
only to read a dark secret, a gloomy threat in each doubtful word he
uttered. He was the strangest enigma of all. Why did we fear him? Why
did Madame de Pavannes, who apparently had known him before, shudder at
the touch of his hand? Why did his shadow come even between her and
her sister, and estrange them? so that from the moment Pavannes' wife
saw him standing by Diane's side, she forgot that the latter had come
to save, and looked on her in doubt and sorrow, almost with repugnance.

We left the Vidame going back to the fireplace. He stooped to set down
the candle by the hearth. "They are not here," he said, as he
straightened himself again, and looked curiously at his companions. He
had apparently been too much taken up with the pursuit to notice them
before. "That is certain, so I have the less time to lose," he
continued. "But I would--yes, my dear Coadjutor, I certainly would
like to know before I go, what you are doing here. Mirepoix--Mirepoix
is an honest man. I did not expect to find you in HIS house. And two
ladies? Two! Fie, Coadjutor. Ha! Madame d'O, is it? My dear lady,"
he continued, addressing her in a whimsical tone, "do not start at the
sound of your own name! It would take a hundred hoods to hide your
eyes, or bleach your lips to the common colour; I should have known you
at once, had I looked at you. And your companion? Pheugh!"

He broke off, whistling softly. It was clear that he recognised Madame
de Pavannes, and recognised her with astonishment. The bed creaked as
I craned my neck to see what would follow. Even the