h. She forgot the stories she
had heard regarding his past, she forgot the sinister shadow he had
cast over her own life, she forgot all save that without such men as
this there would and could be no history. And she was quite ignorant
of the fact that her scrutiny was being returned in kind.

"Madame," he asked, "have I not met you somewhere in wide and beautiful
France?"

"France is wide, as you say. I do not recollect having seen you before
taking passage on the Henri IV."

He felt instinctively that she had immediately erected a barrier
between them; not from her words, but from their hidden sense. He at
once turned to Anne and recounted an anecdote relating to her
distinguished grandsire. But covertly he watched madame; watched the
half-drooping eyelids, the shadow of a dimple in her left cheek, the
curving throat, the shimmering ringlet which half obscured the perfect
ear. He had seen this face before, or one as like it as the reflection
of the moon upon placid water is like the moon itself. Now and then he
frowned, remembering his purpose. But why was this young woman, who
was fit to grace a palace, why was she here incognito? Ah!

"Madame, have you met Monsieur le Chevalier du Cevennes, my son?"

Anne trembled for her friend.

"I have noticed him, Monsieur. Is he anything like you, as you were in
your youth?" It was admirable, but not even Anne dreamed of the
delicacy of the thread which held together madame's tones.

"Modesty compels me to remain silent," replied the marquis.

"And how goes Mazarin's foreign policy?" asked De Lauson.

"Politics is a weed which I have cast out of my garden, your
Excellency," said the marquis, laughing.

Madame had a grateful thought for the governor, and she regretted that
she could not express it aloud. He had changed the current from a
dangerous channel.

It was the marquis who opened the door for the ladies; it was the
marquis who said good night with an inflection which gave it a new
meaning; it was the marquis who intruded into madame's thoughts,
causing her partly to forget the letter and the broken sentence of
D'Herouville's.

"What an extraordinary man he is, that marquis!" was Anne's comment as
they mounted the stairs.

"Monsieur le Chevalier has yet a good deal to learn from his father.
See the moon, Anne; how beautiful it is!"

"Your Excellency," began the marquis, resuming his seat, "where may I
find Monsieur le Comte d'Herouville this e