"You!" he repeated, his gaze fastened on the startled, proud face. "Though I looked not forward to a dance--with your Ladyship!" The black eyes glowed. "_Pardi_! It was worth the risk." A moment he waited; then his manner changed. "I will leave your Ladyship now," he said quietly. "You will have opportunity to consider"--she did not answer--"whether you will give me your promise, or not," he added, and, wheeling abruptly, walked away. Some time later, in the fast-gathering darkness, from the cove a small boat put out, with Sanchez, gloomy and sullen, in the stern; at the bow, the Governor's daughter. As the isle receded and the point of land loomed bigger before them, the girl gazed straight ahead; but the man looked back: to the sands of the little cove, a pale simitar in the dragon-like mouth of the rock; toward the tower, near which he fancied he could see a figure, turned from them--seaward--where, far out, a ship might just be discerned, a dim outline on the horizon. CHAPTER X THE CLOISTER IN THE AIR Irrespective of environment, the cloister of the Mount would have been a delight to the eye, but, upheld in mid air, with the sky so near and the sands so far below, it seemed more an inspiration of fancy than a work of hand. Dainty, delicate, its rose-colored columns of granite appeared too thin for tangible weight; the tympan's sculptured designs, fanciful as the carvings in some palace of a poet's dreams. Despite, however, this first impression of evanescence, it carried a charm against the ravages of time, and ethereal though it was, had rested like a crown on the grim head of the rock through the ages. Once a place for quiet meditation, the cloister had, through a whirligig of change, become the favorite resort of the Governor, for _déjeûner_, or after-dinner dram, and, on occasions, for the transaction of much profane though necessary labor pertaining to his office and private concerns. He busied himself there now; or had been busying himself, but paused to look up from the large book before him, whose pages were inscribed with items and figures. His finger, following the mental computation, remained stationary. _Fouage_--tax upon fires; _banvin_--duties on wine; _vingtain_--the lord's right to his share of the produce; _minage_--his due from each _mine_ or half _setier_ of coin--consideration of these usually all-important matters seemed for the moment to have been forgotten. He leaned back, and as he sat thus, the light and shadow playing on him, the dark, steely eyes looked the more sunken, the hard, cynical lips beneath the white mustache, the more cruel, the spare figure the more alert and ready, as if to grapple with some hidden danger. "_J'arrive en ce pays De Basse Normandie--_"