She understood him then. “You don’t think——?” she said eagerly.
“What I don’t think is not of much account. But I do think that any man who has once been under fire from your dark eyes would not readily forget them. He had not forgotten them, and they set him thinking too.”
“Oh, how cruel you are! To blame me in this way.”
“Blame you? It is the fortune of things. But if you think there’s a lesson in the thing, that good fellow of yours, Denys St. Jean, mightn’t be sorry if you learnt it. A thing of that sort is pretty much like a forest fire: you can start it easily, but you never know what may be burnt or how far it may spread before it’s put out.”
“I ought to be grateful to you for first frightening and then lecturing me at a time like this,” cried Lucette angrily.
“My punishment to you would be to sentence you to stop it for the future. That’s all. And now I’ve said my say,” he answered; and then, with a reassuring laugh, added: “As for this, it will be nothing. Have no fear. We may have a farce of a trial and a sentence after this Tiger’s manner; but before he can do anything, the tables will be turned on him, and he is not unlikely to find himself where we are. Have no fear, and don’t be surprised at anything that happens.”
Lucette was silent for a while, her manner a mixture of vexation and regret.
“Shall I say I have learnt my lesson, monsieur?” she asked with a look half mocking, half serious. “Your words have hurt me.”
“I fear you’ve but a poor memory for lessons, Lucette.”
“Ah, you are unendurable! I don’t like this lecturer’s mood of yours.”