"Who are you, sir, that you should dare to surprise confidences intended for another, and by what right do you question me?" said the lady, haughtily. "By no right, Madame," I replied, fairly breaking into sobs, and burying my face in my hands. "I can only appeal to your compassion. I am that Englishman whom--whom...." For a moment there was silence. My companion was the first to speak. "Poor boy!" she said; and her voice, now, was gentle and compassionate. "You have been rudely undeceived. Did Madame de Marignan pass herself off upon you for a widow?" "She never named her husband to me--I believed that she was free. I fancied he had been dead for years. She knew that was my impression." "And you would have married her--actually married her?" "I--I--hardly dared to hope...." "_Ciel_! it is almost beyond belief. And you never inquired into her past history?" "Never. Why should I?" "Monsieur de Marignan holds a government appointment in Algiers, and has been absent more than four years. He is, I understand, expected back shortly, on leave of absence." I conquered my agitation by a supreme effort. "Madame," I said, "I thank you. It now only remains for me to explain my intrusion. I can do so in half a dozen words. Caught in the storm and unable to find a conveyance, I sought shelter in this carriage, which being the last on the file, offered the only refuge of which I could avail myself unobserved. While waiting for the tempest to abate, I fell asleep; and but for the chance which led you to mistake me for another, I must have been discovered when you entered the carriage." "Then, finding yourself so mistaken, Monsieur, would it not have been more honorable to undeceive me than to usurp a conversation which...." "Madame, I dared not. I feared to alarm you--I hoped to find some means of escape, and...." "_Mon Dieu_! what means? How are you to escape as it is? How leave the carriage without being seen by my servants?" I had not thought of this, nor of the dilemma in which my presence must place her. "I can open the door softly," said I, "and jump out unperceived." "Impossible, at the pace we are going! You would break your neck." I shook my head, and laughed bitterly. "Have no fear of that, Madame," I said. "Those who least value their necks never happen to break them. See, I can spring out as we pass the next turning, and be out of sight in a moment." "Indeed, I will not permit it. Oh, dear! we have already reached the Faubourg St. Germain. Stay--I have an idea I Do you know what o'clock it is?" "I don't know how long I may have slept; but I think it must be quite three." "_Bien_! The Countess de Blois has a ball to-night, and her visitors are sure not to disperse before four or five. My sister is there. I will send in to ask if she has yet gone home, and when the carriage stops you can slip out. Here is the Rue de Bac, and the door of her hotel is yet surrounded with equipages."