Not for a second had he any intention of obeying her; one might almost have believed that he had not heard her command. He gazed at her with indescribable pleasure such as he had never before felt in the presence of any woman. She repeated in more imperious accents: “Go away!” “No,” he said. “Then I shall go away myself.” “If you go away I shall follow you,” he declared. “We will go back to the convent together.” She turned as if to fly. He caught her arm. “Don’t touch me!” she said indignantly, freeing herself. “I forbid you to touch me. I forbid you to come near me!” Surprised by her vehemence, he said: “But why?” In a low voice she replied: “I have a horror of you.” The answer was so astonishing that he could not refrain from smiling. “Do you detest me as much as that?” “Yes.” “More than you detest Marescal?” “Yes.” “More than you detest William and that ruffian at the Villa Faradoni?” “Yes, yes, yes.” “But they were harming you and without me who protected you——” She was silent; she had picked up her hat and was holding it across the lower part of her face so that he could not see her lips. Her attitude was explained by that concealment; Ralph had not a doubt of it. If she detested him, it was not because he had been the witness of all the crimes and infamies that had been committed, but because he had held her in his arms and kissed her lips. A strange modesty in a girl like her; yet it was so sincere and threw such a light on the very recesses of her soul and her instincts that, in spite of himself, he murmured: “I beg you to forget it.” Then drawing back a few steps to show her that she was free to depart, he continued in a tone of involuntary respect: “That night was a night of observation of which neither you nor I must cherish the remembrance. Forget the way in which I acted. Besides it is not to recall that to you that I am here, but to continue my work of helping you. Chance threw me across your path and chance willed it that from the beginning I should be useful to you. Do not reject my help. The threat of danger, far from being ended, is growing graver. Your enemies are exasperated. What will you do, if I am not there?” “Go away,” she said stubbornly. She remained on the threshold of the terrace as if she were on the threshold of an open door. She avoided Ralph’s eyes and hid her lips. However she did not go. As he had thought, one is the captive of one who indefatigably saves you. Her look was fearful. But the memory of the kisses he had stolen was giving way to the infinitely more terrible memory of the trials she had undergone. “Go away,” she said again. “I was at peace here. You are mixed up with all those things—with all those—hellish things.”