Over the Governor's visage a faint trace of relief flitted; dryly he looked from the mountebank, now erect and motionless, to the girl; but the face was averted and his Excellency could not see the sudden whiteness of her cheek; again he regarded the officer. "You answer our summons with alacrity," he observed to this last subject of his scrutiny. The commandant reddened. "I--your Excellency--the truth is, I was waiting without, at the door." "What you have just stated," returned the Governor, "is patent; what I should like to know, however," with subtle change of tone, "is _why_ you were stationed there." "To take this mountebank player away, when it pleased her Ladyship to--" "Yes; to take him away!" interrupted the lady in hurried tones, the agitation of which she strove to conceal. "And I was about to call him, when--" The Governor continued to address the commandant. "You brought him here?" incisively. "Yes; your Excellency; a stupid fellow we arrested below for making trouble with his dolls, and--but with her ladyship's permission--" awkwardly turning to the Governor's daughter, "I will explain." To this appeal the girl, however, made no answer; as if fascinated, watched them, the commandant, her father, the still, white figure at one side--not far away! "I think," the Governor spoke softly, "you will do that, anyway!" "Exactly, your Excellency! It happened in this wise," and not without evidence of constraint and hesitation, the officer slowly related the story of the disturbance on the platform; the taking into custody of the rogues and knaves, and my lady's interest in the vagabond clown whose play had occasioned the riot. "Because it was seditious, designed to set authority at naught?" interrupted the listener, grimly eying for an instant the motionless form of the mountebank. "On the contrary, your Excellency!" quickly. "Her ladyship assured me it was the loyal and faithful sentiments of the play that caused the unruly rascallions to make trouble, and that the clown deserved no punishment, because he had intended no mischief." "Her ladyship?" The Governor's brows went suddenly up. "How," he asked at length in a voice yet softer, "should her ladyship have known about the 'loyal and faithful sentiments' of a piece, given in the town, before a crowd of brawlers?" "Because I was a spectator!" said his daughter, a red spot now on her cheek; changing lights in her eyes. "A spectator?" repeated, in mild surprise, the Governor. "I will explain--after!" she added in tones, low, constrained. "Hum!" His Excellency's glance swept to the commandant.