"It may be," I said. "But I will not do it." "Why? Why? Why?" she cried. "Because I carry that commission; and to use it to shelter M. Froment were a thing M. Froment would not do himself. That is all." He shrugged his shoulders, and magnanimously kept silence. But she was furious. "Quixote!" she cried. "Oh, you are intolerable! But you shall suffer for it. _Eh, bien_, Monsieur, you shall suffer for it!" she repeated vehemently. "Nay, Madame, you need not threaten," I retorted. "For if I would, I could not. You forget that M. de Géol is no more than a league behind us, and bound for Nîmes; he may appear at any moment. At best he is sure to lodge where we do to-night. If he finds," I continued drily, "that I have added a brother to my growing family, I do not think that he will take it lightly." But this, though she must have seen the sense of it, had no effect upon her. "Oh, you are intolerable!" she cried again. "Let me out! Let me out, Monsieur." This last to Froment. I did not gainsay her, and he let her out, and the two walked a few paces away, talking rapidly. I followed them with my eyes; and seeing him now, detached, as it were, and solitary in that dreary landscape--a man alone and in danger--I began to feel some compunction. A moment more, and I might have repented; but a touch fell on my sleeve, and I turned with a start to find Denise leaning towards me, with her face rapt and eager. "Monsieur," she whispered eagerly; before she could say more I seized the hand with which she had touched me, and kissed it fiercely. "No, Monsieur, no," she whispered, drawing it from me with her face grown crimson--but her eyes still met mine frankly. "Not now. I want to speak to you, to warn you, to ask you----" "And I, Mademoiselle," I cried in the same low tone, "want to bless you, to thank you----" "I want to ask you to take care of yourself," she persisted, shaking her head almost petulantly at me, to silence me. "Listen! Some trap will be laid for you. My mother would not harm you, though she is angry; but that man is desperate, and we are in straits. Be careful, therefore, Monsieur, and----" "Have no fear," I said. "Ah, but I have fear," she answered. And the way in which she said that, and the way in which she looked at me, and looked away again like a startled bird, filled me with happiness--with intense happiness; so that, though Madame came back at that moment, and no more passed between us, not even a look, but we had to sink back in our seats, and affect indifference, I was a different man for it. Perhaps something of this appeared in my face, for Madame, as she came up to the door, shot a suspicious glance at me, a glance almost of hatred; and from me looked keenly at her daughter. However, nothing was said except by Froment, who came up to the door and closed it, after she had entered. He raised his hat to me.