eplied Francine, smiling.

They looked at each other for a moment speechless,--Francine at
revealing so much knowledge of life, and Marie at the perception, which
now came to her for the first time, of a future of happiness in her
passion. She seemed to herself hanging over a gulf of which she had
wanted to know the depth, and listening to the fall of the stone she had
flung, at first heedlessly, into it.

"Well, it is my own affair," she said, with the gesture of a gambler. "I
should never pity a betrayed woman; she has no one but herself to blame
if she is abandoned. I shall know how to keep, either living or dead,
the man whose heart has once been mine. But," she added, with some
surprise and after a moment's silence, "where did you get your knowledge
of love, Francine?"

"Mademoiselle," said the peasant-woman, hastily, "hush, I hear steps in
the passage."

"Ah! not _his_ steps!" said Marie, listening. "But you are evading an
answer; well, well, I'll wait for it, or guess it."

Francine was right, however. Three taps on the door interrupted the
conversation. Captain Merle appeared, after receiving Mademoiselle de
Verneuil's permission to enter.

With a military salute to the lady, whose beauty dazzled him, the
soldier ventured on giving her a glance, but he found nothing better to
say than: "Mademoiselle, I am at your orders."

"Then you are to be my protector, in place of the commander, who
retires; is that so?"

"No, my superior is the adjutant-major Gerard, who has sent me here."

"Your commandant must be very much afraid of me," she said.

"Beg pardon, mademoiselle, Hulot is afraid of nothing. But women,
you see, are not in his line; it ruffled him to have a general in a
mob-cap."

"And yet," continued Mademoiselle de Verneuil, "it was his duty to obey
his superiors. I like subordination, and I warn you that I shall allow
no one to disobey me."

"That would be difficult," replied Merle, gallantly.

"Let us consult," said Mademoiselle de Verneuil. "You can get fresh
troops here and accompany me to Mayenne, which I must reach this
evening. Shall we find other soldiers there, so that I might go on at
once, without stopping at Mayenne? The Chouans are quite ignorant of
our little expedition. If we travel at night, we can avoid meeting any
number of them, and so escape an attack. Do you think this feasible?"

"Yes, mademoiselle."

"What sort of road is it between Mayenne and Fougeres?"

"Rough; al