younger brother, however, finding every path to fortune barred to him
through the persecution to which men of his faith were already
subjected, had dropped the "de" which implied his noble descent, and he
had taken to trade in the city of Paris, with such success that he was
now one of the richest and most prominent citizens of the town. It was
under his roof that the guardsman now sat, and it was his only daughter
whose white hand he held in his own.

"Tell me, Adele," said he, "why do you look troubled?"

"I am not troubled, Amory,"

"Come, there is just one little line between those curving brows. Ah, I
can read you, you see, as a shepherd reads the sky."

"It is nothing, Amory, but--"

"But what?"

"You leave me this evening."

"But only to return to-morrow."

"And must you really, really go to-night?"

"It would be as much as my commission is worth to be absent. Why, I am
on duty to-morrow morning outside the king's bedroom! After chapel-time
Major de Brissac will take my place, and then I am free once more."

"Ah, Amory, when you talk of the king and the court and the grand