Breakfast over, I got a team for the ladies, and, mounting my own horse, rode before them. I began to consider a very odd thing in this love experience. While they were in captivity I had begun to think less of Louison and more of Louise. In truth, one face had faded a little in my memory; the other, somehow, had grown clearer and sweeter, as if by a light borrowed from the soul behind it. Now that I saw Louison, her splendid face and figure appealed to me with all the power of old. She was quick, vivacious, subtle, aggressive, cunning, aware and proud of her charms, and ever making the most of them. She, ah, yes, she could play with a man for the mere pleasure of victory, and be very heartless if--if she were not in love with him. This type of woman had no need of argument to make me feel her charms. With her the old doubt had returned to me; for how long? I wondered. Her sister was quite her antithesis--thoughtful, slow, serious, even-tempered, frank, quiet, unconscious of her beauty, and with that wonderful thing, a voice tender and low and sympathetic and full of an eloquence I could never understand, although I felt it to my finger-tips. I could not help loving her, and, indeed, what man with any life in him feels not the power of such a woman? That morning, on the woods-pike, I reduced the problem to its simplest terms: the one was a physical type, the other a spiritual. "M'sieur le Capitaine," said Louison, as I rode by the carriage, "what became of the tall woman last night?" "Left us there in the woods," I answered. "She was afraid of you." "Afraid of me! Why?" "Well, I understand that you boxed her ears shamefully." A merry peal of laughter greeted my words. "It was too bad; you were very harsh," said Louise, soberly. "I could not help it; she was an ugly, awkward thing," said Louison. "I could have pulled her nose'" "And it seems you called her a geante also," I said. "She was quite offended." "It was a compliment," said the girl. "She was an Amazon--like the count's statue of Jeanne d'Arc." "Poor thing! she could not help it," said Louise. "Well," said Louison, with a sigh of regret, "if I ever see her again I shall give her a five-franc piece." There was a moment of silence, and she broke it. "I hope, this afternoon, you will let me ride that horse," said she. "On one condition," was my reply. "And it is--?" "That you will let me ride yours at the same time." "Agreed," was her answer. "Shall we go at three?" "With the consent of the baroness and--and your father," I said. "Father!" exclaimed the two girls. / "Your father," I repeated. "He is now at the chateau." "Heavens!" said Louison. "What will he say?" said the baroness. "I am so glad--my dear papa!" said Louise, clapping her hands. We were out of the woods now, and could see the chateau in the uplands. XXIV