“Pray have done.”
“It is for your good,” he said plumply. “When Corporal Beausire comes to keep his tryst—— ”
“At seven o’clock—— ”
“Exactly. Say to him: We are discovered; but I have a patron who will save us both: you from the galleys, me from the jail. Let us be off.”
“Be off?”
“Since you love him, you will marry and be off,” said the duke.
“Love him, yes: but marry him? ha, ha, ha!” and the duke was stupefied by the laugh.
Even at court he had not met many hussies as shameless as this. Understanding the sly glance, he replied:
“In any case I will pay the expenses of this double journey.”
Nicole asked no more: as long as the excursion was paid for the rest mattered not a jot.