"You, monsieur!"
"Yes, I; are you not called Helene de Chaverny? Were you not brought up in the Augustine convent between Nantes and Clisson? Did you not one day receive an order to leave the convent from a mysterious protector who watches over you? Did you not travel with one of the sisters, to whom you gave a hundred louis for her trouble? At Rambouillet, did not a person called Madame Desroches await you? Did she not announce to you a visit from your father? The same evening, did not some one arrive who loved you, and who thought you loved him?"
"Yes, yes, monsieur, it is all true," said Helene, astonished that a stranger should thus know the details of her history.
"Then the next day," continued the regent, "did not Monsieur de Chanlay, who followed you under the name of De Livry, pay you a visit, which was vainly opposed by Madame Desroches?"
"You are right, monsieur, and I see that Gaston has told you all."
"Then came the order to leave for Paris. You would have opposed it, but were forced to obey. You were taken to a house in the Faubourg St. Antoine; but there your captivity became insupportable."
"You are mistaken, monsieur; it was not the captivity, but the prison."
"I do not understand you."
"Did not Gaston tell you of his fears, which I laughed at at first, but shared afterward?"
"No, tell me what did you fear?"