The insolent,
petty, provincial Seigneur!
"Monsieur De la Riviere," she returned, with cold dignity, "you cannot
live long enough to atone for that impertinence."
"I beg your pardon, madame," he returned earnestly, awed by the look in
her face; for she was thoroughly aroused. "I came to stop a filibustering
expedition, to save the credit of the place where I was born, where my
people have lived for generations."
She made a quick, deprecatory gesture. "You saw me enter here," she said,
"and you thought to discover treason of some kind--Heaven knows what a
mind like yours may imagine! You find me giving better counsel to His
Highness than you could ever hope to give--out of a better heart and from
a better understanding. You have been worse than intrusive; you have been
rash and stupid. You call His Highness filibuster and impostor. I assure
you it is my fondest hope that Prince Valmond Napoleon will ever count me
among his friends, in spite of all his enemies."
She turned her shoulder on him, and took Valmond's hand with a pronounced
obeisance, saying, "Adieu, sire" (she was never sorry she had said it),
and passed from the room.
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