poison the colonel."

"My dear, it is the count as much as the colonel. She is under his
orders, and he has an eagle eye."

"The old monkey! He enrages me! I could rend him limb from limb!"

I could not help hearing what they said, but I did not think it
quite fair to share their confidence any further, so I went to one
of the windows and closed a shutter noisily. The voices must have
come from a little balcony just under my room.

"My dear sister, you are very terrible," said one of them, and then
the shutter came to, and I heard no more.

A full moon lighted the darkness. A little lake gleamed like
silver between the tree-tops. Worn out with hard travel, I fell
into bed shortly, and lay a long time thinking of those young
ladies, of the past, of to-morrow and its perils, and of the
farther future. A new life had begun for me.




VII

The sun was lifting above the tree-tops when the count's valet
called me that morning at the Chateau Le Ray. Robins were calling
under my windows, and the groves rang with tournaments of happy
song. Of that dinner-party only the count was at breakfast with