"You - you do not mean that you are a spy?" she asked; and from my
heart a prayer of thanks went up to Heaven that this at least it
was mine frankly to deny.

"No, no - not that. I am no spy."

Her face cleared again, and she sighed.

"It is, I think, the only thing I could not forgive. Since it is
not that, will you not tell me what it is?"

For a moment the temptation to confess, to tell her everything, was
again upon me. But the futility of it appalled me.

"Don't ask me," I besought her; "you will learn it soon enough."
For I was confident that once my wager was paid, the news of it and
of the ruin of Bardelys would spread across the face of France like
a ripple over water. Presently--

"Forgive me for having come into your life, Roxalanne!" I implored
her, and then I sighed again. "Helas! Had I but known you earlier!
I did not dream such women lived in this worn-out France."

"I will not pry, monsieur, since your resolve appears to be so firm.
But if - if after I have heard this thing you speak of," she said
presently, speaking with averted eyes, "and if, having heard it, I
judge you more mercifully than you judge yourself, and I send for
you, will you - will you come back to Lavedan?"

My heart gave a great bound - a great, a sudden throb of hope. But