“I am almost constrained to tempt you,” he said, laughing in his turn.
“Nay, I have put my curiosity away—about that, but I have plenty left about you and your life and all you have done to change you from that boy Gerard whom I knew.”
“I am very different from him, I trust. I have been a soldier since the time I was big enough to shoulder a musket.”
“And have fought? Tell me, tell me. Where and with whom? I love to hear of brave deeds. I am a soldier’s daughter, you know.”
“I have been a courier of fortune, as all younger sons must be, and have carried arms under the Bourbons.”
“We Malincourts, too, claim to be of the Bourbon blood; but—how do you mean—a younger son? I had not heard you had ever a brother, Gerard.”
“All soldiers have brothers-in-arms,” he replied, hastily, and with some confusion. “I have had my own way to push—to prove that I was worthy to lead.”
“Yes, yes. And you have proved that long since, I am confident. But tell me of the fighting. Oh, I would that I had been a man to bear my part as a soldier!”
“That had been hard on me, Gabrielle.”
“True enough, too. And for that I am glad I am only a woman,” she said, gently, nestling yet closer to him. And having thus led her on to the safe topic of his career as a soldier, he told her many of his experiences. She listened eagerly to his story, hanging on his words in rare delight, until he broke off, remembering that he was to see the Governor that night.