"But you will understand," continued the young man, to whom the desire of saving the Comte de Bonneville and staying near Mary gave a firmness and resolution quite foreign to his character, "you understand, don't you, that if you do as you said to-night,--that is, if you denounce my friends,--I shall most certainly not renew the lease of an informer?"
"Oh! oh!" exclaimed Courtin.
"That is certain. Once out of this farm you may say good-bye to it, Courtin; you shall never return to it."
"But my duty to the government and Madame la baronne?"
"All that is nothing to me. I am Baron Michel de la Logerie; the estate and château de la Logerie belong to me; my mother resigns them when I come of age; I shall be of age in eleven months, and your lease falls in eight weeks later."
"But suppose I renounce my intention, Monsieur le baron?"
"If you renounce your intention, your lease shall be renewed."
"On the same conditions as before?"
"On the same conditions as before."
"Oh, Monsieur le baron, if I were not afraid of compromising you," said Courtin, fetching pen, ink, and paper from the drawer of a desk.