"So I was, Monsieur Gaspard, but four days ago the King gave me to Jan Meert and sent us here." "To Jan Meert?" "Oh, not for the first time!" said she, tossing her head, but though it was to me she spoke her eyes were on Mademoiselle's face as if, being a woman, she feared the woman's judgment rather than the man's, "and I'm not ashamed either. What do we dogs of peasants who love one another need with a priest?" "I rated you higher than that," said I. "I know you did, Monsieur Gaspard," and the defiance in her eyes softened. "It was the one thing I loved in you, that, and that you were a gentleman who could make me mistress of Solignac, but I thought you a fool all the time. Then Jan Meert came and burnt Solignac for my sake, and that settled it. I'm no owl to roost on charred sticks, even to be called Madame." "Jan Meert burnt Solignac for your sake?" Again she laughed, but this time with a fuller heartiness, as if she were on surer ground and better pleased with herself. "It's not every woman has her man do such a thing for her." "He did more than that, he killed Babette?" "Babette was a cat with claws in her tongue, many a time they've scratched me to the bone. Babette's no loss. But I let no harm come to you, Monsieur Gaspard. Remember how I lured you to me that day and kept you safe; you owe me thanks for that." "Then you knew?" "Not for certain, though I better than guessed. But you had always treated me _en gentilhomme_, and so----" "Have we time for all this?" broke in Mademoiselle, speaking for the first time. "Tell him why Jan Meert is in Plessis." "There is no need," answered I, remembering the King's promise that, fail or succeed, I should meet the man who had made me homeless. It was truly a genially humoursome way of flinging his old tools to the rubbish heap. "He is there by the grace of God and Saint Louis of Plessis! What I do not understand is why she is here." "That you may escape! Do you not see?" cried Mademoiselle, half laughing, half in sobs, "Do you not see that there is no need for me to go to Plessis at all now she is safe?" "Why," said Brigitta, "was it to save me--me, old Pieter the herdsman's daughter, that you came back? Mademoiselle! did I not say he played his part _en gentilhomme_? Oh, Monsieur Gaspard, you may not own a rood of land worth the having, but you are a Grand Seigneur for all that. To save me! and I burnt Solignac." "I did not know that." "You would have come all the same, you know you would." "I know he would," repeated Mademoiselle, her face all aglow; "but now, thank God! there is no need for either to go." "No," answered I; "after I have met Jan Meert there will be no need to go on to Plessis. But since she came to warn me, why is she here with you?"