"I would do anything to further your wishes, Madonna; this I would have you believe. And a journey to Brussels is such a small matter...."
"As you say," she murmured. For such are the contradictions of a woman's heart that all of a sudden she did not wish to go away. All thoughts of rebellion and conspiracies were unaccountably thrust into the background of her mind, and ... she did not wish to go away....
"There is no hurry," she continued timidly. "I would not like to put you to inconvenience."
"Oh!" he rejoined airily, "there is no inconvenience which I would not gladly bear in order to gratify your wish."
"I shall have to pack my effects...."
"Jeanne will help Inez, and a few things are easily packed. Your effects shall follow in an ox-wagon; they will be two days on the way; so I pray you take what is required for your immediate needs and is easily stowed in your saddle-bow. We shall have to make an early start, if you desire to be in Brussels by nightfall."
"Oh! there is no hurry," she protested.
"Ah? Then in that case I could escort you as far as Alost, and send a courier thence to your father, to meet you there the next day."
She bit her lip and could have cried with vexation. At the present moment she hated him for so obviously wishing to be rid of her. She had quite forgotten that she had ever wanted to go.
"I shall be too tired to make an early start in the morning," she said quite piteously. "Why it is close on early morning now."