close to me. 'Is not a man's house his
own?'

'It is, for me,' I answered coolly, shrugging my shoulders. 'And
his wife: if she likes to pick dirty rags at this hour, that is your
affair.'

'Pig of a spy!' he cried, foaming with rage.

I was angry enough at bottom, but I had nothing to gain by quarrelling
with the fellow; and I curtly bade him remember himself.

'Your mistress gave you orders,' I said contemptuously. 'Obey them.'

He spat on the floor, but at the same time he grew calmer.

'You are right there,' he answered spitefully. 'What matter, after all,
since you leave to-morrow at six? Your horse has been sent down, and
your baggage is above.'

'I will go to it,' I retorted. 'I want none of your company. Give me a
light, fellow!'

He obeyed reluctantly, and, glad to turn my back on him, I went up the
ladder, still wondering faintly, in the midst of my annoyance, what his
wife was about that my chance detection of her had so enraged him. Even
now he was not quite himself. He followed me with abuse, and, deprived
by my departure of any other means of showing his spite, fell to
shouting through the floor, bidding me remember six o'clock, and be
stirring; with other taunts, which did not cease until he had tired
himself out.

The sight of my belongings--which I had left a few hours before at the
Chateau--strewn about the floor of this garret, went some way towards
firing me again. But I was worn out. The indignities and mishaps of the
evening had, for once, crushed my spirit, and after swearing an oath or
two I began to pack my bags. Vengeance I would have; but the time and
manner I left for daylight thought. Beyond six o'clock in the morning I
did not look forward; and if I longed for anything it was for a little
of the good Armagnac I had wasted on those louts of merchants in the
kitchen below. It might have done me good now.

I had wearily strapped up one bag, and nearly filled the other, when I
came upon something which did, for the moment, rouse the devil in me.
This was the tiny orange-coloured sachet which Mademoiselle had dropped
the night I first saw her at the inn, and which, it will be remembered,
I picked up. Since that night I had not seen it, and had as good as
forgotten it. Now, as I folded up my other doublet, the one I had then
been wearing, it dropped from my pocket.

The sight of it recalled all--that night, and Mademoiselle's face in the
lantern light, and my fine plans, and the end