-whether by the intention of their utterer or not--as a
spark to the Captain's ardour. Loyal he would be to his friend and to
his embassy, but that she should suspect him of insincerity, that she
should not know his love, was more than he could bear.

"Ah," he said, seizing her ungloved hand again, "since last night
indeed! Last night it was my dream--my mad dream-- Ah, don't be
angry! Don't draw your hand away."

The lady's conduct indicated that she proposed to assent to both these
requests; she smiled still and she did not withdraw her hand from
Dieppe's eager grasp.

"My honour is pledged," he went on, "but suffer me once to kiss this
hand now that it wears no ring, to dream that it need wear none, that
you are free. Ah, Countess, ah, Emilia--for once let me call you
Emilia!"

"For once, if you like. Don't get into the habit of it," she advised.

"No, I 'll only think of you by that name."

"I should n't even do as much as that. It would be a-- I mean you
might forget and call me it, you know."

"Never was man so unhappy as I am," he cried in a low but intense
voice. "But I am wrong. I must remember my trust. And you--you love
the Count?"

"I am very fond of Andrea," said she, almost in a whisper. She seemed
to suffer sorely from embarrassment, for she added hastily,
"Don't--don't press me about that any more." Yet she was smiling.

The Captain knelt on one knee and kissed her hand very respectfully.
The mockery passed out of her smile, and she said in a voice that for a
moment was grave and tender:

"Thank you. I shall like to remember that. Because I think you 're a
brave man and a true friend, Captain Dieppe."

"I thank God for helping me to remain a gentleman," said he; and,
although his manner was (according to his custom) a little pronounced
and theatrical, he spoke with a very genuine feeling. She pressed her
hand on his before she drew it away.

"You 'll be my friend?" he asked.

She paused before she replied, looking at him intently; then she
answered in a low voice, speaking slowly and deliberately:

"I will be all to you that I can and that you ask me to be."

"I have your word, dear friend?"

"You have my word. If you ask me, I will redeem it." She looked at
him still as though she had said a great thing--as though a pledge had
passed between them, and a solemn promise from her to him.

What seemed her feeling found an answer in Dieppe. He pressed her for
no more