e. Come, Andrea," and I took his arm, "let us ascend to
that chamber which she has but just quitted. Who can tell but that we
shall find there some token of her recent presence? If nothing more, at
least the air will be pervaded by the perfume she affected, and since
you scorn the humble food of man, you can dine on that."

He smiled despite himself as I drew him towards the staircase.

"Scoffer!" quoth he. "Your callous soul knows naught of love."

"Whereas you have had three hours' experience. Pardieu! You shall
instruct me in the gentle art."

Alas, for those perfumes upon which I had proposed that he should feast
himself. If any the beautiful Genevieve had left behind her, they had
been smothered in the vulgar yet appetising odour of the steaming ragout
that occupied the table.

I prevailed at length upon the love-lorn boy to take some food, but I
could lead him to talk of naught save Genevieve de Canaples. Presently
he took to chiding me for the deliberateness wherewith I ate, and
betrayed thereby his impatience to be in the saddle and after her.
I argued that whilst she saw him not she might think of him. But
the argument, though sound, availed me little, and in the end I
was forced--for all that I am a man accustomed to please myself--to
hurriedly end my repast, and pronounce myself ready to start.

As Andrea had with him some store of baggage--since his sojourn at Blois
was likely to be of some duration--he travelled in a coach. Into this
coach, then, we climbed--he and I. His valet, Silvio, occupied the seat
beside the coachman, whilst my stalwart Michelot rode behind leading
my horse by the bridle. In this fashion we set out, and ere long the
silence of my thoughtful companion, the monotonous rumbling of the
vehicle, and, most important of all factors, the good dinner that I had
consumed, bred in me a torpor that soon became a sleep.

From a dream that, bound hand and foot, I was being dragged by St. Auban
and Malpertuis before the Cardinal, I awakened with a start to find
that we were clattering already through the streets of Etrechy; so that
whilst I had slept we had covered some six leagues. Twilight had already
set in, and Andrea lay back idly in the carriage, holding a book which
it was growing too dark to read, and between the leaves of which he had
slipped his forefinger to mark the place where he had paused.

His eyes met mine as I looked round, and he smiled. "I should not have
thought, Gaston