“Then you, too, were not without interest in a stranger?”
“It is not a fair hit,” she laughed. “I would not have had even a stranger think me an ingrate for such service.”
“Then it was merely to thank me, you wished.”
“Gerard!” and she let her eyes drop to the ground.
“I should like to think that before you heard my name to-day, you——” He commenced in great earnestness, but checked himself again.
“Some day I will tell you,” she replied in a low tone, after a pause; and then, in a tone as low, he asked—
“And what if I had been other than Gerard de Cobalt?”
“Thank God, it was not so,” she cried, with a little shiver and a sigh.
“Why, Gabrielle?” He had his own strong reason for pressing the question.
For a time she kept her head bowed and remained silent; but then raising her eyes to him frankly and trustfully she said—