young man's face was flushed, his eyes were
bright with unwonted excitement.

"M. de Rochefoucauld?" he asked eagerly. "He has not left yet?"

Nancay caught the thrill in his voice, and marked the young man's flushed
face and altered bearing. He noted, too, the crumpled paper he carried
half-hidden in his hand; and the Captain's countenance grew dark. He
drew a step nearer, and his hand reached softly for his dagger. But his
voice, when he spoke, was smooth as the surface of the pleasure-loving
Court, smooth as the externals of all things in Paris that summer
evening.

"He is here still," he said. "Have you news, M. de Tignonville?"

"News?"

"For M. de Rochefoucauld?"

Tignonville laughed. "No," he said. "I am here to see him to his
lodging, that is all. News, Captain? What made you think so?"

"That which you have in your hand," Nancay answered, his fears relieved.

The young man blushed to the roots of his hair. "It is not for him," he
said.

"I can see that, Monsieur," Nancay answered politely. "He has his
successes, but all the billets-doux do not go one way."

The young man laughed, a conscious, flattered laugh. He was handsome,
with such a face as women love, but there was a lack of ease in the way
he wore his Court suit. It was a trifle finer, too, than accorded with
Huguenot taste; or it looked the finer for the way he wore it, even as
Teligny's and Foucauld's velvet capes and stiff brocades lost their
richness and became but the adjuncts, fitting and graceful, of the men.
Odder still, as Tignonville laughed, half hiding and half revealing the
dainty scented paper in his hand, his clothes seemed smarter and he more
awkward than usual.

"It is from a lady," he admitted. "But a bit of badinage, I assure you,
nothing more!"

"Understood!" M. de Nancay murmured politely. "I congratulate you."

"But--"

"I say I congratulate you!"

"But it is nothing."

"Oh, I understand. And see, the King is about to rise. Go forward,
Monsieur," he continued benevolently. "A young man should show himself.
Besides, his Majesty likes you well," he added, with a leer. He had an
unpleasant sense of humour, had his Majesty's Captain of the Guard; and
this evening somewhat more than ordinary on which to exercise it.

Tignonville held too good an opinion of himself to suspect the other of
badinage; and thus encouraged, he pushed his way to the front of the
circle. During his absence with his bet