“Mademoiselle, I have seen you,” he answered with a bow.
Gabrielle laughed gaily. “How formal, cousin.”
“I am lost in wonderment. I know not what to say.”
“It is well that you are quicker with your sword than with your tongue, or it would have gone harder than it did with my poor Denys just now. But perhaps I understand. You are surprised in me. I am different from what you expected.”
“You are the fairest woman I have ever seen.”
She blushed again and smiled.
“Yet you could not look more scared were I the ugliest witch. Shall I tell you a secret? I have dreaded your coming.”
“Pray God I may never give you cause to repent it, mademoiselle,” he replied with an intense earnestness which drew her gaze full upon him.
“Mademoiselle?” she repeated, after a pause, with a touch of coquetry. “Mademoiselle—from cousin to cousin?”
He started again uneasily, for the question put a fresh puzzle to him—how to address her. Then he put it by and asked—