returned
to town, and we shall meet! But why do I say 'returned'? Perhaps he
only pretended to go away, and safe in this retreat has flouted with
impunity, my despair and braved my vengeance!"

Up to this the lady had played a waiting game, but now she grew quite
confused, trying to discover the thread of the treasurer's thoughts. To
whom did he refer? The Duc de Vitry? That had been her first
impression. But the duke had only been acquainted with her for a few
months--since she had--left Court. He could not therefore have excited
the jealousy of her whilom lover; and if it were not he, to whom did the
words about rejecting "perfidious friendship," and "returned to town,"
and so on, apply? Jeannin divined her embarrassment, and was not a
little proud of the tactics which would, he was almost sure; force her to
expose herself. For there are certain women who can be thrown into cruel
perplexity by speaking to them of their love-passages without affixing a
proper name label to each. They are placed as it were on the edge of an
abyss, and forced to feel their way in darkness. To say "You have loved"
almost obliges them to ask "Whom?"

Nevertheless, this was not the word uttered by Mademoiselle de Guerchi
while she ran through in her head a list of possibilities. Her answer
was--

"Your language astonishes me; I don't understand what you mean."

The ice was broken, and the treasurer made a plunge. Seizing one of
Angelique's hands, he asked--

"Have you never seen Commander de Jars since then?"

"Commander de Jars!" exclaimed Angelique.

"Can you swear to me, Angelique, that you love him not?"

"Mon Dieu! What put it into your head that I ever cared for him? It's
over four months since I saw him last, and I hadn't an idea whether he
was alive or dead. So he has been out of town? That's the first I heard
of it."

"My fortune is yours, Angelique! Oh! assure me once again that you do
not love him--that you never loved him!" he pleaded in a faltering voice,
fixing a look of painful anxiety upon her.

He had no intention of putting her out of countenance by the course he
took; he knew quite well that a woman like Angelique is never more at her
ease than when she has a chance of telling an untruth of this nature.
Besides, he had prefaced this appeal by the magic words, "My fortune' is
yours!" and the hope thus aroused was well worth a perjury. So she
answered boldly and in a steady voice, while she looke