large room, where arrangements had been made for a substantial
breakfast. He whistled and the landlord entered, and bowed with
reverence.

Quentin Durward had eaten little for two days, and Maître Pierre seemed
delighted with the appetite of the young Scot, who indeed devoured an
enormous repast. When his appetite had been satisfied, and the old man
had put several questions, the door opened, and a girl, whose
countenance, so young and so lovely, was graver, Quentin thought, than
belongs to an early beauty, entered with a platter and a cup of delicate
workmanship.

"How now, Jacqueline?" said Maître Pierre. "Did I not desire that Dame
Perette should bring what I wanted? But I blame thee not, thou art too
young to be--what thou must be one day--a false and treacherous thing,
like the rest of thy giddy sex. Here is a Scottish cavalier will tell
you the same."

But Durward, with the feelings of youth, answered hastily, "That he
would throw down his gage to any antagonist, of equal rank and equal
age, who should presume to say such a countenance as that which he now
looked upon could be animated by other than the purest and the truest
mind."

The young woman grew deadly pale, and cast an apprehensive glance upon
Maître Pierre, in whom the bravado of the young gallant seemed only to
excite laughter.

Jacqueline vanished, and Maître Pierre, after filling a goblet with
silver pieces, and bidding Quentin Durward take it and remain in the