"Ah!" A look flashed from his Excellency to his daughter; her glance failed to meet it. Yet paler, she turned over-hurriedly to the Marquis. "What is that air they are playing now?" His response she heard not, was only conscious that, across the board, the eyes of her father still scrutinized; studied! At length, however, the evening wore away; a signal from his Excellency, and of one accord they rose and crossed to the star-illumined cloister adjoining. There at the entrance, my lady, who toward the last had listened with an air of distraction, hardly concealed, to her noble suitor's graceful speeches, held back, and, as the others went in, quickly effected her escape and hastened to her own apartments. "At last!" She threw back her arms; breathed deeper. "Ah, _mon père_, you are hard--unyielding as the iron doors and bars of your dungeons!" She pressed her hand to her forehead. "And I can do nothing--nothing!" she repeated; stood for a moment motionless and then mechanically moved toward the bell-rope at the other end of the chamber. But the hand she started to raise was arrested; through the slightly opened door to the adjoining apartment, she heard voices; words that caused her involuntarily to listen. "I have made up my mind to tell her ladyship, Nanette!" The old nurse was speaking, in tones that betrayed excitement and anxiety. "It is, to say the least, embarrassing for me--your coming here! You, the daughter of Pierre Laroche, who emigrated to the English Isles! Who has always shown disloyalty for the monarchy at home!" My lady, surprised, drew nearer; caught the answer, which came in tones, deep and strong. "At least, aunt, you are frank!" "I must be! Under ordinary circumstances, I should be glad; of course, the child of my dead sister ought to be welcome." "So I thought," dryly, "when I stopped off a few days ago to see you, on my way to Paris." "If you had let me know, it is I who would have gone somewhere, near by, to have seen you!" was the troubled reply. "His Excellency--what would he say if he knew? Pierre Laroche, who has been called friend of privateersmen, perhaps even of the Black Seigneur, himself! I should have gone to his Excellency at once and asked if he objected, only you begged me not, and--" "Were you so anxious to be rid of me?" quickly. "I shouldn't speak as I do now, perhaps, only--" "Only?" "Your conduct, since you have been here--" "What do you mean?" The other's tone had a sudden defiant ring. "It is not seemly for a girl of your age and condition to be out alone so late, nights!" "I just went down into the town to get something," was the careless response, "and the sands looked so attractive--" "That's no excuse! And now," the old nurse's voice showed a trace of embarrassment, "we've had our visit, and you had better carry out your plan of going to Paris." "You want me to leave here--at once?" The girl drew her breath sharply. "Perhaps it would be as well."