momentary service."

"I know already that you can be very brave and generous," she answered.
"What I want to know is whether I can serve you--now or afterward," she
added, with a quaver.

"Most certainly," he answered with a smile. "Let me sit beside you as
if I were a friend, instead of a foolish intruder; try to forget how
awkwardly we are placed to one another; make my last moments go
pleasantly; and you do me the chief service possible."

"You are very gallant," she added, with a yet deeper sadness ... "Very
gallant ... and it somehow pains me. But draw nearer, if you please;
and if you find anything to say to me, you will at least make certain
of a very friendly listener. Ah! Monsieur de Beaulieu," she broke
forth--"ah! Monsieur de Beaulieu, how can I look you in the face?"
And she fell to weeping again with a renewed effusion.

"Madam," said Denis, taking her hand in both of his; "reflect on the
little time I have before me, and the great bitterness into which I am
cast by the sight of your distress. Spare me, in my last moments, the
spectacle of what I cannot cure even with the sacrifice of my life."

"I am very selfish," answered Blanche. "I will be braver, Monsieur de
Beaulieu, for your sake. But think if I can do you no kindness in the
future--if you have no friends to whom I could carry your adieus.
Charge me as heavily as you can; every burden will lighten, by so
little, the invaluable gratitude I owe you. Put it in my power to do
something more for you than weep."

"My mother is married again, and has a young family to care for. My
brother Guichard will inherit my fiefs; and if I am not in error, that
will content him amply for my death. Life is a little vapor that
passeth away, as we are told by those in holy orders. When a man is in
a fair way and sees all life open in front of him, he seems to himself
to make a very important figure in the world. His horse whinnies to
him; the trumpets blow and the girls look out of window as he rides
into town before his company; he receives many assurances of trust and
regard--sometimes by express in a letter--sometimes face to face, with
persons of great consequence falling on his neck. It is not wonderful
if his head is turned for a time. But once he is dead, were he as
brave as Hercules or as wise as Solomon, he is soon forgotten. It is
not ten years since my father fell, with many other knights around him,
in a very fierce encounter, and I do