"Not further than the precincts of the Kasteel, I hope."
"What is that to you, whither I go?" she queried.
"My orders..." he stammered, somewhat taken aback by this grand manner on the part of the señora who had always been so meek and silent hitherto.
"What orders have you had, seigneur capitaine?" she queried, "which warrant your interference with my movements?"
"I ... truly..." he murmured, "señor de Vargas..."
"My father, I presume, has not given you the right to question my freedom to go and come as I please," she retorted, still with the same uncompromising hauteur.
"No ... but..."
"Then I pray you let me pass.... I hear the bells of St. Pharaïlde ... I shall be late for Benediction...."
She swept past him, leaving him not a little bewildered and completely abashed. He watched her tall, graceful figure as she sailed through the portico and thence across the castle-yard, then he shrugged his shoulders as if to cast aside any feeling of responsibility which threatened to worry him, and returned to the guard-room and to his game of hazard. It was only then that he recollected that it lacked another two hours to Benediction yet.
In the yard Lenora had more serious misgivings.