"Here goes, then!" said Canolles; and with his heart beating fit to burst its walls, hardly able to see, his fears and his desires inextricably confused in his mind, he opened the door and saw behind the hangings, with laughing face and sparkling eyes, Nanon de Lartigues, who cried out with joy, as she threw her arms around the young man's neck.
Canolles stood like a statue, with his arms hanging at his sides, and lifeless eye.
"You?" he faltered.
"I!" said she, redoubling her smiles and kisses.
The remembrance of the wrong he had done her passed through Canolles' mind, and as he divined instantly that he owed to this faithful friend his latest good-fortune, he was utterly crushed by the combined weight of remorse and gratitude.
"Ah!" said he; "you were at hand to save me while I was throwing myself away like a madman; you were watching over me; you are my guardian angel."
"Don't call me your angel, for I am a very devil," said Nanon; "but I appear only at opportune times, you will admit."
"You are right, dear friend; in good sooth, I believe that you have saved me from the scaffold."
"I think so too. Ah! baron, how could you, shrewd and far-sighted as you are, ever allow yourself to be taken in by those conceited jades of princesses?"
Canolles blushed to the whites of his eyes; but Nanon had adopted the plan of not noticing his embarrassment.