"Possibly," said the magician; "but do not heed that," he added in a tone of command. "Are all asleep under this roof?"
"All, save my father who is reading one of those bad books, which he pesters me to read, but I will not."
"Good; we are safe in that quarter. Look where Nicole is."
"She is in her room, in the dark, but I need not the light to see that she is slipping out of it to go and hide behind the yard door to watch."
"To watch you?"
"No."
"Then, it matters not. When a girl is safe from her father and her attendant, she has nothing to fear, unless she is in love——"
"I, love?" she said sneeringly. And shaking her head, she added sadly: "My heart is free."
Such an expression of candor and virginal modesty embellished her features that Balsamo radiantly muttered: