“Hush, hush, dear one, it is for my own pleasure that I go. I ask but this: one kiss to bear with me as a remembrance, perhaps all I shall ever ask of you.”
Alaine almost quailed at the request. She had promised to be true to one lover; the remembrance of his caresses, his kisses, still haunted her day and night. But this man, ready to lay down his life for her, could she refuse him? It was a sacred duty that she should send him away with all of happiness and hope that she could offer. She mutely raised her face to his, and he kissed her as it were a sacrament he took. “Adieu, my star. Alaine, I am yours, living or dead. I love you forever. A long adieu, sweet Alaine; it grows late and you will be missed. Leave me here. Once more, adieu!”
She gave him her hands again and looked long and wistfully into his face. “Adieu, Pierre,” she said at last and turned away. Once she looked back and he smiled; but as she passed out of sight, he staggered back against the rocky ledge and leaned there white to the lips. And Alaine, as she went on her way with bowed head, struggled to keep down the rising cry of her heart, “Lendert, Lendert, I must be false to you; I must put you forever from my thoughts. If Pierre, for love of me, can do this great thing, ought I, for my father’s sake,—for Pierre’s sake,—to do less? Forgive me, Lendert, God knows I love you.”
And so it was that Pierre sailed away, and in time François recovered, so that before the trees were bare he was well enough to take his departure too. “It is but for a time, mademoiselle,” he said before parting. “I do not go far, and you shall see me again; believe me, it will not be so very long before you see me again. I have an acute perception and I watch; that Pierre has gone, no one seems to know why or where, and that other, our friend of large proportions, does not appear, therefore I feel that I need have no fear. The boy Gerard has eyes and ears for no one but the saucy damsel across the way, and you and he will not marry yet, in spite of Michelle. So ’tis but au revoir, mademoiselle, and I shall see you before we see these trees again bare. I trust that I shall some day prove to you all that I am not ungrateful for your care of me, and to Michelle most of all.” He bowed in the direction of Michelle, who had come forward and now stood stiff and uncompromising.
“You owe us nothing, monsieur, but the consideration that will leave us to ourselves,” she said. “Show us your good will so much as to do that, and we are content.”
He laughed. “I should be as impolite as that other patient of yours who has never had the grace to come back for a friendly call.” He glanced at Alaine as he spoke, and the color forsook the girl’s face.
But Michelle took up the cudgels. “He was in no way under obligation to do that, M. Dupont. This is not the city of Paris nor of Rouen, where to make a call is a small business. These are troublous times, and our guest does us greater favor by protecting us from an invading foe than he could by his presence here.”
“Oho! so that is what you think,” returned François. “M. Mercier here could tell you another tale. He is busy, that friend of yours, in helping M. Bayard and others of the same stripe to keep secure. He is not fond of the Black People, nor is M. Bayard, you know.” He watched Alaine narrowly, but she had gone around to Michelle’s side and stood leaning upon the good woman’s broad shoulder.
“Well, well,” put in Papa Louis, cheerfully, “we will not quarrel when our parting is so near. Whatever the times bring forth, the condition of affairs is due neither to us nor to our visitors. We have a common foe to fight and must make common cause at last. You, monsieur, have given us reason to believe that you are with us in that, and why dispute anything else.”
“In faith, what else could I do?” returned François, shrugging his shoulders. “When one is on his back and scarce able to lift a finger, he must promise anything that will save his scalp, be it from Iroquois or Mohawk. I am out of any sort of a fight, as you see, not yet being able to hold sword or pistol.”