"_Merci! mon Capitaine_," she said; and for all my wincings under the sharp lash of her sarcasm I was moved to wonder how she had the French of it. And then she added: "Is it the custom for Her Apostolic Majesty's officers to come out of a death-swound only to pay pretty compliments?" "'Twas no compliment," I denied; and, indeed, I meant it. Then I asked where I was, and to whom indebted, though I had long since guessed the answer to both questions. In a trice the mocking mood was gone and she became my lady hostess, steeped to her finger-tips in gracious dignity. "You are at Appleby Hundred, sir. 'Twas here they fetched you because there was no other house so near, and you were sorely hurt. Richard Jennifer and my black boy made a litter of the saddle-cloths, and with Sir Francis and Mr. Tybee to help--" I think she must have seen that this thrust was sharper than that of the German long-sword, for she stopped in mid-sentence and looked away from me. And, surely, I thought it was the very irony of fate that I should thus be brought half dead to the house that was my father's, with my enemy and his second to share the burden of me. "But your father?" I queried, when the silence had grown over-long. "My father is away at Queensborough, so you must e'en trust yourself to my tender mercies, Captain Ireton. Are you strong enough to have your wound dressed?" She asked, but waited for no answer of mine. Summoning a black boy to hold the basin of water, she fell to upon the wound-dressing with as little ado as if she had been a surgeon's apprentice on a battle-field, and I a bloodless ancient too old to thrill at the touch of a woman's hands. "Dear heart! 'tis a monstrous ugly hurt," she declared, replacing the wrappings with deft fingers. "How came you to go about picking a quarrel with Sir Francis?" "'Twas not of my seeking," I returned, and then I could have cursed my foolish tongue. "Is that generous, Captain Ireton? We hear something of the talk of the town, and that says--" "That says I struck him without sufficient cause. I am content to let it stand so." "Nay, but you should not be content. Is there not strife enough in this unhappy land without these causeless bickerings?" Here was my lady turned preacher all in a breath and I with no words to answer her. But I could not let it go thus. "I knew Sir Francis Falconnet in England," said I, hoping by this to turn her safe aside. "Ah; then there was a cause. Tell it me." "Nay, that I may not." Though she was hurting me sorely in the wound-dressing, and knew it, she laughed. "'Tis most ungallant to deny a lady, sir. But I shall know without the telling; 'twas about a woman. Tell me, Captain Ireton, is she fair?"