was--

"Your language astonishes me; I don't understand what you mean."

The ice was broken, and the treasurer made a plunge. Seizing one of
Angelique's hands, he asked--

"Have you never seen Commander de Jars since then?"

"Commander de Jars!" exclaimed Angelique.

"Can you swear to me, Angelique, that you love him not?"

"Mon Dieu! What put it into your head that I ever cared for him? It's
over four months since I saw him last, and I hadn't an idea whether he
was alive or dead. So he has been out of town? That's the first I heard
of it."

"My fortune is yours, Angelique! Oh! assure me once again that you do
not love him--that you never loved him!" he pleaded in a faltering voice,
fixing a look of painful anxiety upon her.

He had no intention of putting her out of countenance by the course he
took; he knew quite well that a woman like Angelique is never more at her
ease than when she has a chance of telling an untruth of this nature.
Besides, he had prefaced this appeal by the magic words, "My fortune' is
yours!" and the hope thus aroused was well worth a perjury. So she
answered boldly and in a steady voice, while she looked straight into his
eyes--