ndship.
Good day, Mademoiselle."

I came away, leaving her surprised and discomfited, for which I was not
sorry. She had expected to find me still her slave, and to expend her
pertness on me as before: though she might have known that if danger
would make a man of me, it would give me a man's eyes to see the
difference between a real woman and a scornful miss.

I went to Paris, careful this time to avoid conflict with bold-speaking
young gentlemen at inns; and on the way I had one precious hour at
Hugues's house, wherein--upon his marriage to Mathilde--the Countess had
established herself, to the wonder of all who heard of it. She continued
to lodge there, her affairs turning out so that she was able to repay
Hugues liberally. She occupied herself in good works for the poor about
Montoire, and so two years passed, each day making her happier and more
beautiful. Many times I went between La Tournoire and Paris,--always by
way of Montoire. In Paris I saw much of Brignan de Brignan, whose
moustaches had soon grown back to their old magnitude. And one day whom
should I meet in the Rue St. Honore but that excellent spy of Sully's,
Monsieur de Pepicot?

I begged him to come into a tavern. "There is something you owe me,"
said I, when we were seated; "an account of how you got out of the
Chateau de Lavardin that night without leaving any trace."

"It was nothing," said the long-nosed man meekly. "I found an empty room
with a mullioned window, on the floor beneath ours, and let myself down
to the terrace with a knotted rope I had brought in my portmanteau."

"But I never heard that any rope was found."

"I had passed it round the inside of the window-mullion and lowered both
ends to the ground, attached to my portmanteau. In descending I kept
hold of both parts. When I was down, I had only to release one part and
pull the rope after me. I found a gardener's tool-shed, and in it some
poles for trellis-work. I placed two of these side by side against the
garden wall, at the postern door, and managed to clamber to the top."

"But I heard of nothing being found against the wall."

"Oh, I drew the poles up after me, and also my portmanteau, by means of
the rope, which I had fastened to them and to my waist. I let them down
to a plank which crossed the moat there, as I had observed before ever
entering the chateau. I dropped after them, and was lucky enough to
avoid falling into the moat. I hid the poles among the bushes: not