Her figure straightened. "Why do you hate him so?" she asked passionately. "You have hastened their trial, and would carry out the sentence before there is time for justice. And the man whom that day you ordered whipped from the Mount--after letting me think him safe! After all that his master did for me! Why was he lashed? Because of him he served or of the old Seigneur before that? I heard you ask about him--of his having gone to America? Why did you care about that?" "You seem to have listened to a great deal!" [Illustration: "You seem to have listened to a great deal."] "And why did he go to America?" she went on, unheeding. "Did you hate him, too? What for?" "If you have nothing else to talk about--" He glanced at the door. "And the lands!" she said. "They were his; now they are yours--" "Unjustly, perhaps _you_ think." "No, no!" she cried. "I didn't mean--I didn't imply that. Of course not! Only," putting out her hands, "I try to understand, and--you have never taken me into your confidence, _mon père_! You have been indulgent; denied me nothing, but--I don't want to feel the way I have felt the last week, as if--" quickly she stopped. "No doubt there are reasons--although I have puzzled; and if I knew! Can't you," abruptly, "treat me as one worthy of your confidence?" "You!" he said with quiet irony. "Who--_listen_!" The girl flushed. "I had to, because--" "And who misrepresent facts, as in the case of--Saladin!" "But--" "How long," standing over her, "were you on the island?" "I--don't know!" "You don't?" His voice implied disbelief. "Part of the time I was unconscious--" "In the watch-tower with him!" She made a gesture. "Would you rather--" "What did he say?" The girl's eyes, that had been so steadfast, on a sudden wavered. "Nothing--much." "And you? Nothing, too? Then how was the deception devised--the pact entered into--" Her figure stiffened. "There was no pact." "Treason, then? The law holds it treason to--" "You are cruel; unjust!" she cried. "To me, as you were to him. That old man you had whipped! I wonder," impetuously, "if you are so to all of them, the people, the peasants. And if that is the reason they have only black looks for me--and hatred? As if they would like to curse us!" He turned away. "I am very busy." "_Mon père_!" He walked to the door. "Then you won't--won't spare them?" He opened wide the door. Still she did not move, until the sight of the commandant without, the curious glance he cast in their direction, decided her. Drawing herself up, she walked toward the threshold, and, bowing perfunctorily, with head held high, crossed it. CHAPTER XV THE VOICE FROM THE GROUP "No one from the household is allowed through without an order!" "You will, however, let me pass." "Because you have a pretty face?" The sentinel at the great gate separating the upper part of the Mount from the town, answered roughly. "Not you, my girl, or--"