"Yet you ask me to marry you?" Gabrielle said. The hunchback answered: "To save you from Gonzague. You would have died to-night but for this mad plan of mine. Once you are safe, you can easily be set free from me." There was that in Gabrielle's eyes which the hunchback could not see. There was that in Gabrielle's heart which the hunchback could not read. Gabrielle appreciated the nobility of the man who was trying to save her, but Gabrielle also understood the strength of her own love and her own determination, but she showed nothing of this in her words. All she said was: "Well, I am not safe yet. What do you want me to do?" The hunchback instructed her. "Just say yes to the questions I shall ask you now aloud. Speak as if you were in a dream." He drew back now a little from the girl, and turned triumphantly to the others, with the air of one who has accomplished a very difficult task. Then he approached Gabrielle again. "Do you love me?" he asked, in a clear voice which carried to all parts of the room. And the girl, looking straight before her like one that spoke in a trance, answered, clearly: "I love you with all my heart, for ever and ever and ever." Gonzague, who had been watching the proceedings with cynical curiosity, was the most amazed of the amazed spectators. "Here is a miracle." "I'll not believe it," Chavernay protested. The hunchback made an angry gesture to command silence. "Hush!" he said, and then again addressed the girl: "Will you be my wife?" Gabrielle answered as clearly as before: "I will be your wife gladly. In joy and in sorrow, I will be your wife so long as I live." The hunchback turned triumphantly to the company. "Gentlemen, gentlemen, you see that my suit prospers. The poor hunchback was no boaster." Flora, seated near to Gonzague, and conquered by his domination and by the horror of the scene, covered her face with her hands and shuddered. "It's too horrible," she moaned. The hunchback nodded to her ironically. "You are severe," he said, dryly. Then he turned to Gonzague. "There is a friend of mine at the door," he said. "May I introduce him?" Gonzague nodded, and the hunchback advanced to the door of the antechamber. Chavernay looked after him with haggard eyes. "What spell has the devil got?" he muttered. Gonzague shrugged his shoulders. "I am amazed; but the knave has my faith, and, if the lady's taste limps, shall we say her nay?" XXVIII THE SIGNATURE OF ÆSOP