When at last her fight was won, and nerves and senses fell into line with her determination to be loyal to Laurent in the spirit as well as in the letter, she felt as if every emotion in her was dead--as if she never would again be able to laugh and make merry, to cry, to love, or to hate--as if she would henceforth be just a callous, heartless, unfeeling thing without even the capacity for sorrow. She looked at Ronnay and endured his glance without a tremor, and at last she was able to speak, knowing that there would be no quiver in her voice now to betray the agony of what she suffered. "Of a truth, _mon cousin_," she said, with an indifferent little laugh, "it is passing kind of you to offer to be my beast of burden once again, but I assure you that I would not care to become quite so ludicrous a spectacle as you suggest before good old Mathurin and all your work-people. Believe me, I would far sooner go back to La Frontenay on my own feet. It would not be very dignified--would it?--for the future Marquise de Mortain to be carried along the road like a bundle of goods." He said nothing for a moment or two, nor could she, by the dim light, read very clearly in his eyes whether her words had conveyed to him the full meaning which she intended, until he said quite simply: "Ah! I had forgotten." A curious ashen colour overspread his face like that of a man suffering great physical pain. And Fernande--poor Fernande!--with a forced laugh plunged the knife still more deeply into the gaping wound. "Forgotten, _mon cousin_?" she said. "How could you have forgotten that I am your brother's promised wife? Did you not tender me your congratulations yesterday?" "Of course, of course; I understand," he murmured vaguely, and he passed his hand once or twice mechanically across his brow. Then suddenly, with that rough directness which was so characteristic of him, he added simply: "But as long as life lasts, my beloved, I shall thank God on my knees for the one glimpse of Heaven which He gave me this night." "There is a great deal, _mon cousin_," she rejoined coldly and firmly, "that both you and I must forget after this." "Yes," he retorted. "I, for one, shall have to forget that my mother and my brother armed the hands of assassins against me." Instinctively she called out: "It is false!"