"If you would call me puppet to-morrow, we might strike a balance and
find--what should we find?"
"An adventurer, I fear," she remarked.
He was not taken aback. "An adventurer truly," he said. "It is a far
travel to France, and there is much to overcome!"
She could scarcely reconcile this acute, self-contained man with the
enthusiast and comedian she had seen in the Cure's garden.
"Monsieur Valmond," she said, "I neither suspect nor accuse; I only feel.
There is something terribly uncertain in this cause of yours, in your
claims. You have no right to waste lives."
"To waste lives?" he asked mechanically.
"Yes; the Government is to proceed against you."
"Ah, yes," he answered. "Monsieur De la Riviere has seen to that; but he
must pay for his interference."
"That is beside the point. If a force comes against you--what then?"
"Then I will act as becomes a Napoleon," he answered, rather grandly.
So there was a touch of the bombastic in his manner even yet! She laughed
a little ironically. Then all at once her thoughts reverted to Elise, and
some latent cruelty in her awoke. Though she believed the girl, she would
accuse the man, the more so, because she suddenly became aware that his
eyes were fixed on herself in ardent admiration.
Pages:
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207