"It is not time," Claude answered curtly. The vision of an angel does not necessarily purify at all points, and he had small stomach for Master Louis at any time. The youth winced under the tone, but stood his ground. "Where is Anne?" he asked, something sullenly. "Upstairs. Why do you ask?" "Messer Basterga is not coming to supper. Nor Grio. They bade me tell her. And that they would be late." "Very well, I will tell her." But it was evident that that was not all Louis had in his mind. He remained fidgeting by the door, his cap in his hand; and his face, had Claude marked it--but he had already turned a contemptuous shoulder on him--was a picture of doubt and indecision. At length, "I've a message for you," he muttered nervously. "From Messer Blondel the Syndic. He wants to see you--now." Claude turned, and if he had not looked at the other before, he made up for it now. "Oh!" he said at last, after a stare that bespoke both surprise and suspicion. "He does, does he? And who made you his messenger?" "He met me in the street--just now." "He knows you, then?" "He knows I live here," Louis muttered. "He pays us a vast amount of attention," Claude replied with polite irony. "Nevertheless"--he turned again to the fire--"I cannot pleasure him," he continued curtly, "this time." "But he wants to see you," Gentilis persisted desperately. It was plain that he was on pins and needles. "At his house. Cannot you believe me?" in a querulous tone. "It is all fair and above board. I swear it is." "Is it?" "It is--I swear it is. He sent me. Do you doubt me?" he added with undisguised eagerness. Claude was about to say, with no politeness at all, that he did, and to repeat his refusal in stronger terms, when his ear caught the same sound which had revealed so much to him a few minutes earlier at the foot of the stairs. It came more faintly this time, deadened by the closed door of the staircase, but to his enlightened senses it proclaimed so clearly what it was--the echo of a cracked, shrill voice, of a laugh insane, uncanny, elfish--that he trembled lest Louis should hear it also and gain the clue. That was a thing to be avoided at all costs; and even as this occurred to him he saw the way to avoid it. Basterga and Grio were absent: if this fool could be removed, even for an hour or two, Anne would have the house to herself, and by midnight the crisis might be overpast. "I will come with you," he said. Louis uttered a sigh of relief. He had expected--and he had very nearly received--another answer. "Good," he said. "But he does not want me." "Both or neither," Claude replied coolly. "For all I know 'tis an ambush." "No, no!" "In which event I shall see that you share it. Or it may be a scheme to draw me from here, and then if harm be done while I am away----" "Harm? What harm?" Louis muttered. "Any harm! If harm be done, I say, I shall then have you at hand to pay me for it. So--both or neither!"