"Countess," he said at last, after long searching for a topic, "I am from the north and you from the south. Yet to look at us, it is I who am the Spaniard and you the Frank!" "My father was a Flamand!" said Valentine la Niña calmly. "And, may I ask, of what degree?" "Of a degree higher than your own!" said Valentine, turning her great eyes indolently upon him. Guise looked staggered. He had not supposed that the world held any such. "Then he must have been a reigning prince!" he stammered. "Well?" said Valentine, looking at him with direct inquiry. "I had not understood that even so ancient a house as the Osorios----" "I never said that my father was an Osorio!" "Ah!" said the Duke, "then I ask your pardon. I was indeed ignorant." He scented mystery, and being a plain, hard-hearted, cruel man of the time, thrust into a commanding position by circumstances, he resented being puzzled, like a very justice of the peace. "If you do not believe me----" Valentine began. "Most noble princess," he protested, bending nearer to her as she sat on the low seat looking straight up at him; "not once have I dreamed----" "Go to my native country of Leon and ask the first gentleman you meet whether Valentine la Niña be not the honest daughter of a king. Only do not, if you value your life, express such disbelief as you did just now, or the chances are that you will never again see fair Lorraine!" She looked about her. What she had expected all along had happened. They were alone. By some art of the Jesuit father, subtly piloting the course of events, Osorio had gone to the private parlour to find certain papers. Mariana and De Bar had followed him. Instantly the girl's demeanour changed. Half rising, she reached out her hand and clutched the astonished Guise by the cuff of his black velvet sleeve. "Do not trust the King of France," she whispered, "do not put yourself in the power of the King of Spain. Do not listen to my uncle, Osorio, who does his bidding. Keep away from Blois. Make yourself strong in your own territories--I, who speak, warn you. There is but a hair's breadth between you and death. Above all, do not listen to Mariana the Jesuit. Do not believe him on his sworn oath. His Order seeks your death now that you have served their turn, and--I do not wish harm to come to a brave man." Had Valentine's eyes been upon the door she would have seen it open slightly as if a breeze were pushing it. "And pray, princess," said Guise, smiling, well content, "would it be the act of a brave man thus to shun danger?" "The lion is not the braver for leaping into the prepared pit with his eyes open. He is only foolish!" Guise laughed easily. "If I were to take you at your word, princess," he said, "I should hear no more of you in my dull Lorraine. I could not carry you off to cheer me at Soissons. But here in Paris I may at least see you daily--hear your voice, or if no better, see you at the window as I walk in my garden----"