"Why so?"
"I don't wish to forget my duty."
"Your duty! oh, you little joker!"
"Don't you think we peasant-girls have our duties as well as you soldiers have yours? Come" (Bertha tried to laugh), "if I were to ask you the name of the man you are going to arrest, and it would be against your duty to tell it, would you tell it to me?"
"Faith," said the young man, "I shouldn't fail much in duty if I did tell you; for there isn't, I think, the slightest harm in your knowing it."
"But suppose there were any harm?"
"Oh, then--but I declare I don't know; your eyes have turned my head, and I really can't say what I should do. Well, yes, if you are really as curious as I am weak, I'll tell you that name and betray the country; only, I must be paid for it with a kiss."
Bertha's apprehensions were so great,--she was so convinced that Michel was the object of the expedition,--that she forgot, with her usual impetuosity, all caution, and without reflecting on the suspicions she gave rise to by her persistency, she abruptly offered him her cheek. He took two resounding kisses.
"Give and take," he said, laughing. "The name of the man we are going to arrest is Monsieur de Vincé."
Bertha drew back and looked at the officer. A misgiving crossed her mind that he had tricked her.