"Not here," replied the priest, interrupting her, "not here! This is a solemn and a holy place, unfit for worldly discussions. Let us go somewhere else, where we can talk over the affair more decently. The lower hall was vacant as I passed through." "Well, well," cried the Marchioness with a smile, not altogether free from scorn, "There, as well as here." "Better!" said the priest, leading the way back to the château itself. When they had reached the lower hall, as a large stone paved chamber on the ground floor was called, father Walter was the first to resume the subject; saying, "I thought you would fail in persuading her. Monsieur de Liancourt must use all his authority." "You know him, father!" answered Madame de Chazeul. "It is upon such occasions that he always fails his friends. Bold till the moment of action comes, he is as timid as a hare when it is most necessary to show firmness." "Not when he can be made angry," replied the priest, "or when he can be convinced that his own dignity is at stake." "But on this point, neither of those cases can occur," said the Marchioness. "She will weep and entreat, and then both his dignity and his weakness will take her part. There is but one way before us," she added, in a low and confidential tone, "and that is, to convince her, that her own fame and reputation require her marriage with Chazeul." "That may be difficult," answered father Walter thoughtfully; "but yet with time it may be done. We may surround her with nets from which it is barely possible for her to escape; and continual importunity does much with woman, as you, lady--" "Time! Time!" cried Madame de Chazeul impatiently, "but we have no time. That is the very thing that is wanting. The marriage must take place to-morrow, before noon--That is decided. It shall be if I live!" "Nay, but why such haste?" asked the priest. "With no farther any obstacle but a young lady's reluctance, it were well worth while, to give up a few days to the task of vanquishing that." The Marchioness gazed at him for a moment with a glance half angry, half doubtful, and then repeated his words, "No obstacle!--Hark ye, Walter de la Tremblade," and she whispered in his ear, "De Montigni is alive and well!" Father Walter heard the tidings with a calm sarcastic smile, answering, "I thought so, my daughter. But were it not better to have owned this to me, at once? Such want of trust in those on whose prudence you can rely, has marred many a fair project, and will mar many another. De Montigni lives!--Then you must be quick, indeed!--Not that I bear the young man an ill will: not that I would injure him in anything! but if we can by any means prevent it, he must not carry to the heretic party he has espoused, such estates as would centre in his person by his marriage with this lady. Now, Madam, what is your plan? for you have one already contrived, I see."