one bestows upon a pretty
girl."

"He is evading," said the Captain. "It is a question whether he did not
presume to offer his compliments higher. One does not say to a pretty
girl, 'What is your name?' nor does the girl reply 'Mathilde,' as if she
were a child. It is more likely he heard the girl's name from other
lips. And was he not found spying about the west gallery by Ambroise? My
dear Count, I fear you kept your nose too close to the chessboard
yesterday afternoon. As for me, if I had known as much as I know now, I
should have been more watchful."

The Count's face had turned sicklier and uglier as his friend had
continued to speak. He looked now as if he would like to pounce upon me
with his claw-like fingers. He was evidently between the desire to
question me outright as to whether anything had passed between me and
the Countess, and the dislike of showing openly to a stranger any
suspicion of his wife. The latter feeling prevailed, and he regained
control of himself. I breathed a little easier. But just then it
occurred to me that the Count would surely tax the Countess with having
seen me; that she would acknowledge our meeting; and that her own
account of it would be disbelieved, and the worst imaginings added, for
the very reason of my maintaining secrecy about it. I therefore took a
sudden course.

"Monsieur," I said. "I will be perfectly open with you. From some casual
words of Monsieur de Merri at the inn at La Fleche, before we
quarrelled, I was led to believe that the cause of his journey had
something to do with the welfare of a lady. Afterwards when I heard
whither he was bound so hastily, I remembered that. On learning at
Montoire that this chateau was the only house in which he was known
hereabouts, I assumed that the lady must be in this chateau. It turned
out that the only lady here was the Countess herself. Do you wonder,
then, at my endeavouring to speak to the Countess first upon the matter
of Monsieur de Merri's death?"

"Pray go on," said the Count, who was taking short and rapid breaths.

"It is true I saw the maid at that window, but I saw also the
impossibility of communicating properly with Madame by that channel. So,
in spite of your sentinel's vigilance, I crossed the balustrade to the
garden, and there had the honour of presenting myself to the Countess. I
acquainted her with the fate of Monsieur de Merri. Her demeanour causing
me to believe that this put her into peril on her