My lady stood as if dazed. He, the Black Seigneur, there, in the palace! Mechanically she raised her hand to her breast; she was very pale. On the balcony the nightingale, grown confident, burst into a flood of variations; a thousand trills and full-throated notes filled the room. "I understand now," at length she found voice, "why that fancy came to me below, when I was listening to the play on the platform. But why have you come--to the very Mount itself?" Her voice trembled a little. "You! On the beach the people tried to stop you--" "You saw that, too?" "And you _knew_ the play would make trouble! You wanted it to," quickly. "For what purpose? To get into the upper part of the Mount? To have them arrest--bring you here?" She looked at him with sudden terror. "My father! Was it to--" A low, distinct rapping at the door she had entered, interrupted them. She started and looked fearfully around. At the same time the mountebank stepped back to the side of a great bronze in front of the balcony, where, standing in the shadow, he was screened. "Elise!" a voice called out. The flower the girl had been holding, fell to the floor. "My--" she began, when the door opened and the Governor stood on the threshold. CHAPTER XIX THE MOUNTEBANK AND THE GOVERNOR In his hand the Governor held a paper; his usually austere face wore a slightly propitiatory expression, while the eyes he turned upon her, as slowly he entered the room, suggested a respite of differences. Pausing, he toyed with the missive, turning it around and around in his fingers, as if something in his thoughts were revolving with it. Had he been more watchful of her, less bent on some matter uppermost in his mind, he could not have failed to mark the pallor of her face, or the agitation written there. As it was, his glance swept without studying. "I hoped to find you here," he began complacently; "hoped that you had not yet retired." She made some faint response, but her voice, despite herself, wavered. Whereupon his look sharpened; then almost immediately relapsed; constraint on her part could easily be accounted for; not many hours had elapsed since their last interview. "Yes," he continued, "I have here to consider," indicating a paper he held, "a rather important matter." He waited a moment before adding: "A matter that concerns--you!" "That concerns me?" Her hands tightened. "Yes." "Since it is important," she said hastily, "would it not--shall we not leave it until to-morrow? I--I am rather tired to-night, and--" "What?" he returned in the same unruffled tone. "Would you postpone considering the command of the King!" "Command!" she repeated nervously. "Of the King?" "Or request," he said, "which is the same." "But--" she began, and stopped; held by a sound, as of some one moving, near the window. "Shall I read it, or--"