lied he,
eagerly. "I would poison my grandmother, if you asked me, for the reward
you could give me."

"Yes, I have something in my mind, Chevalier, but not concerning your
grandmother. Tell me why you allowed Le Gardeur de Repentigny to leave
the city?"

"I did not allow him to leave the city," said he, twitching his ugly
features, for he disliked the interest she expressed in Le Gardeur.
"I would fain have kept him here if I could. The Intendant, too, had
desperate need of him. It was his sister and Colonel Philibert who
spirited him away from us."

"Well, a ball in Quebec is not worth twisting a curl for in the absence
of Le Gardeur de Repentigny!" replied she. "You shall promise me to
bring him back to the city, Chevalier, or I will dance with you no
more."

Angelique laughed so gaily as she said this that a stranger would have
interpreted her words as all jest.

"She means it, nevertheless," thought the Chevalier. "I will promise my
best endeavor, Mademoiselle," said he, setting hard his teeth, with a
grimace of dissatisfaction which did not escape the eye of Angelique;
"moreover, the Intendant desires his return on affairs of the Grand
Company, and has sent more than one message to him already, to urge his
return."

"A fig for the Grand Company! Remember, it is I desire his return; and
it is my command, not the Intendant's, which you are bound, as a gallant
gentleman, to obey." Angelique would have no divided allegiance, and the
man who claimed her favors must give himself up, body and soul, without
thought of redemption.

She felt very reckless and very wilful at this moment. The laughter on
her lips was the ebullition of a hot and angry heart, not the play of
a joyous, happy spirit. Bigot's refusal of a lettre de cachet had stung
her pride to the quick, and excited a feeling of resentment which found
its expression in the wish for the return of Le Gardeur.

"Why do you desire the return of Le Gardeur?" asked De Pean,
hesitatingly. Angelique was often too frank by half, and questioners got
from her more than they liked to hear.

"Because he was my first admirer, and I never forget a true friend,
Chevalier," replied she, with an undertone of fond regret in her voice.

"But he will not be your last admirer," replied De Pean, with what
he considered a seductive leer, which made her laugh at him. "In the
kingdom of love, as in the kingdom of heaven, the last shall be first
and the first last. May I be t