ain to her neighbour, Madame Rapally, of the
inquisitiveness which had led the widow to spy on her actions.

CHAPTER VI

We left de Jars and Jeannin, roaring with laughter, in the tavern in the
rue Saint Andre-des-Arts.

"What!" said the treasurer, "do you really think that Angelique thought
I was in earnest in my offer?--that she believes in all good faith I
intend to marry her?"

"You may take my word for it. If it were not so, do you imagine she
would have been in such desperation? Would she have fainted at my threat
to tell you that I had claims on her as well as you? To get married!
Why, that is the goal of all such creatures, and there is not one of
them who can understand why a man of honour should blush to give her his
name. If you had only seen her terror, her tears! They would have either
broken your heart or killed you with laughter."

"Well," said Jeannin, "it is getting late. Are we going to wait for the
chevalier?"

"Let us call, for him."

"Very well. Perhaps he has made up his mind to stay. If so, we shall
make a horrible scene, cry treachery and perjury, and trounce your
nephew well. Let's settle our score and be off."

They left the wine-shop, both rather the worse for the wine they had
so largely indulged in. They felt the need of the cool night air, so
instead of going down the rue Pavee they resolved to follow the rue
Saint-Andre-des-Arts as far as the Pont Saint-Michel, so as to reach the
mansion by a longer route.

At the very moment the commander got up to leave the tavern the
chevalier had run out of the mansion at the top of his speed. It was not
that he had entirely lost his courage, for had he found it impossible
to avoid his assailant it is probable that he would have regained the
audacity which had led him to draw his sword. But he was a novice in the
use of arms, had not reached full physical development, and felt that
the chances were so much against him that he would only have faced the
encounter if there were no possible way of escape. On leaving the house
he had turned quickly into the rue Git-le-Coeur; but on hearing the door
close behind his pursuer he disappeared down the narrow and crooked rue
de l'Hirondelle, hoping to throw the Duc de Vitry off the scent. The
duke, however, though for a moment in doubt, was guided by the sound of
the flying footsteps. The chevalier, still trying to send him off on a
false trail, turned to the right, and so regained the upper end