"But I want another day," said Eagle. "I want all the days that are my due at home." We ascended the steps of the stone pavilion, and sat down in an arch like a balcony over the sunken garden. Pears and apricots, their branches flattened against the wall, showed ruddy garnered sunlight through the dusk. The tangled enclosure sloped down to the stream, from which a fairy wisp of mist wavered over flower bed and tree. Dew and herbs and the fragrance of late roses sent up a divine breath, invisibly submerging us, like a tide rising out of the night. Madame de Ferrier's individual traits were surprised in this nearness, as they never had been when I saw her at a distance in alien surroundings. A swift ripple, involuntary and glad, coursed down her body; she shuddered for joy half a minute or so. Two feet away, I worshiped her smiling eyes and their curved ivory lids, her rounded head with its abundant cap of hair, her chin, her shoulders, her bust, the hands in her lap, the very sweep of her scant gown about her feet. The flash of extreme happiness passing, she said gravely, "But that was a strange thing--that you should fall unconscious!" "Not so strange," I said; and told her how many times before the eclipse--under the edge of which my boyhood was passed--had completely shadowed me. At the account of Ste. Pelagie she leaned toward me, her hands clenched on her breast. When we came to the Hotel Dieu she leaned back pallid against the stone. "Dear Marquis du Plessy!" she whispered, as his name entered the story. When it was ended she drew some deep breaths in the silence. "Sire, you must be very careful. That Bellenger is an evil man." "But a weak one." "There may be a strength of court policy behind him." "The policy of the court at Mittau is evidently a policy of denial." "Your sister believed in you." "Yes, she believed in me." "I don't understand," said Madame de Ferrier, leaning forward on her arms, "why Bellenger had you in London, and another boy on the mountain." "Perhaps we shall never understand it." "I don't understand why he makes it his business to follow you." "Let us not trouble ourselves about Bellenger." "But are you safe in France since the Marquis du Plessy's death?" "I am safe to-night, at least." "Yes, far safer than you would be in Paris." "And Skenedonk is my guard." "I have sent a messenger to Plessy for him," Madame de Ferrier said. "He will be here in the morning." I thanked her for remembering him in the excitement of her home coming. We heard a far sweet call through a cleft of the hills, and Eagle turned her head. "That must be the shepherd of Les Rochers. He has missed a lamb. Les Rochers is the most distant of our farms, but its night noises can be heard through an opening in the forest. Paul will soon be listening for all these sounds! We must drive to Les Rochers to-morrow. It was there that Cousin Philippe died."