toman. Corentin stood looking at her for a
moment with his arms folded, half pleased at inflicting a torture which
avenged him for the contempt and the sarcasms this woman had heaped upon
his head, half grieved by the sufferings of a creature whose yoke was
pleasant to him, heavy as it was.

"She loves him!" he muttered.

"Loves him!" she cried. "Ah! what are words? Corentin! he is my life,
my soul, my breath!" She flung herself at the feet of the man, whose
silence terrified her. "Soul of vileness!" she cried, "I would rather
degrade myself to save his life than degrade myself by betraying him. I
will save him at the cost of my own blood. Speak, what price must I pay
you?"

Corentin quivered.

"I came to take your orders, Marie," he said, raising her. "Yes, Marie,
your insults will not hinder my devotion to your wishes, provided you
will promise not to deceive me again; you must know by this time that no
one dupes me with impunity."

"If you want me to love you, Corentin, help me to save him."

"At what hour is he coming?" asked the spy, endeavoring to ask the
question calmly.

"Alas, I do not know."

They looked at each other in silence.

"I am lost!" thought Mademoiselle de Verneuil.

"She is deceiving me!" thought Corentin. "Marie," he continued, "I
have two maxims. One is never to believe a single word a woman says to
me--that's the only means of not being duped; the other is to find what
interest she has in doing the opposite of what she says, and behaving in
contradiction to the facts she pretends to confide to me. I think that
you and I understand each other now."

"Perfectly," replied Mademoiselle de Verneuil. "You want proofs of my
good faith; but I reserve them for the time when you give me some of
yours."

"Adieu, mademoiselle," said Corentin, coolly.

"Nonsense," said the girl, smiling; "sit down, and pray don't sulk; but
if you do I shall know how to save the marquis without you. As for the
three hundred thousand francs which are always spread before your eyes,
I will give them to you in good gold as soon as the marquis is safe."

Corentin rose, stepped back a pace or two, and looked at Marie.

"You have grown rich in a very short time," he said, in a tone of
ill-disguised bitterness.

"Montauran," she continued, "will make you a better offer still for his
ransom. Now, then, prove to me that you have the means of guaranteeing
him from all danger and--"

"Can't you send him away the m