il she
leaves."

"Nevertheless, we shall still be able to set out, as we had projected,
after dining, for in an hour, or two at most, they will proceed on their
journey."

He was silent for some moments, then:

"To the devil with the Cardinal's plans!" quoth he, banging his fist on
the table. "I shall not go to Blois."

"Pooh! Why not?"

"Why not?" He halted for a moment, then in a meandering tone--"You have
read perchance in story-books," he said, "of love being born from the
first meeting of two pairs of eyes, as a spark is born of flint and
steel, and you may have laughed at the conceit, as I have laughed at
it. But laugh no more, Gaston; for I who stand before you am one who has
experienced this thing which poets tell of, and which hitherto I have
held in ridicule. I will not go to Blois because--because--enfin,
because I intend to go where she goes."

"Then, mon cher, you will go to Blois. You will go to Blois, if not as
a dutiful nephew, resigned to obey his reverend uncle's wishes, at least
because fate forces you to follow a pair of eyes that have--hum, what
was it you said they did?"

"Do you say that she is going to Blois? How do you know?"

"Eh? How do I know? Oh, I heard her servant speaking with the hostler."

"So much the better, then; for thus if his Eminence gets news of my
whereabouts, the news will not awaken his ever-ready suspicions. Ciel!
How beautiful she is! Noted you her eyes, her skin, and what hair, mon
Dieu! Like threads of gold!"

"Like threads of gold?" I echoed. "You are dreaming, boy. Oh, St. Gris!
I understand; you are speaking of the fair-haired chit that was with
her."

He eyed me in amazement.

"'T is you whose thoughts are wandering to that lanky, nose-in-the-air
Madame who accompanied her."

I began a laugh that I broke off suddenly as I realised that it was not
Yvonne after all who had imprisoned his wits. The Cardinal's plans were,
indeed, likely to miscarry if he persisted thus.

"But 't was the nose-in-the-air Madame, as you call her, with whom you
spoke!"

"Aye, but it was the golden-haired lady that held my gaze. Pshaw! Who
would mention them in a breath?"

"Who, indeed?" said I, but with a different meaning.

Thereafter, seeing him listless, I suggested a turn in the village to
stretch our limbs before dining. But he would have none of it, and when
I pressed the point with sound reasoning touching the benefits which
health may cull from exercise, he gre