"Which necessity thrusts upon you," she broke in imperiously.
"Dismiss that fellow."

The secretary, pale and shy, had risen. His eyes dilated at the
woman's speech. He looked for a catastrophe as the natural result
of her taking such a tone with this man who was the terror of his
household and of all Grenoble. Instead, the Lord Seneschal's
meekness left him breathless with surprise.

"He is my secretary, madame. We were at work as you came. I was
on the point of inditing a letter to Her Majesty. The office of
Seneschal in a province such as Dauphiny is helas! - no sinecure."
He sighed like one whose brain is weary. "It leaves a man little
time even to eat or sleep."

"You will be needing a holiday, then," said she, with cool
insolence. "Take one for once, and let the King's business give
place for half an hour to mine."

The secretary's horror grew by leaps and bounds.

Surely the storm would burst at last about this audacious woman's
head. But the Lord Seneschal - usually so fiery and tempestuous -
did no more than make her another of his absurd bows.

"You anticipate, madame, the very words I was about to utter.
Babylas, vanish!" And he waved the scribbler doorwards with a
contemptuous hand. "Take your papers with you - into my closet
there. We will resume that letter to Her Majesty when madame shall
have left me."