"Then you're the Gentleman."
The young man bowed with an action that was altogether French.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE DEAD WOMAN
I
He stood bareheaded in the sun in long black riding-coat and muddied boots and breeches.
"What's that red riband in your button-hole?" asked the boy in a kind of awe.
"That! that's the Legion of Honour." He came a step forward. "Put your finger on it. That little bit of riband once lay upon the heart of Napoleon."
The boy began to tremble. That tiny square of red from which he could not take his eyes had once throbbed to the heart-beats of the Arch- enemy!
"D'you know him?"