"On my word!" said Quennebert behind the arras, "'tis as amusing as a
play! Is the commander also going to offer to make an honest woman of
her? But what do I see?"

He had just caught sight of the young man on whom de Jars had bestowed
the title and name of Chevalier de Moranges, and whose acquaintance the
reader has already made at the tavern in the rue Saint-Andre-des-Arts.
His appearance had as great an effect on the notary as a thunderbolt. He
stood motionless, trembling, breathless; his knees ready to give way
beneath him; everything black before his eyes. However, he soon pulled
himself together, and succeeded in overcoming the effects of his surprise
and terror. He looked once more through the hole in the partition, and
became so absorbed that no one in the whole world could have got a word
from him just then; the devil himself might have shrieked into his ears
unheeded, and a naked sword suspended over his head would not have
induced him to change his place.




CHAPTER IV

Before Mademoiselle de Guerchi had recovered from her fright the
commander spoke.

"As I am a gentleman, my beauty, if you were the Abbess of Montmartre,
you could not be more difficult of access. I met a blackguard on the
stairs who tried to stop me, and whom I was obliged to thrash soundly.
Is what they told me on my return true? Are you really doing penance,
and do you intend to take the veil?"