* * * * * * *
“Tell me, my preserver and, as God shall quit thee, also my friend—you received my letter?”
“Else, why art thou here?”
“But, thou hast done me an incalculable wrong!”
“And an incalculable benefit. Oh, monsieur, do I not atone?”
“To me, yes.”
“Let that pass, then. But, even there, I would not have thee underrate my service. Have I not, to save thee, annihilated time; called in a debt of gratitude that I kept in reversion for my own needs; suborned the very hangman’s carter that I might help thee in thy extremity?”
“And all this is due to thee?”
“Assuredly—and for what reason? Because, in total ignorance of thy claim to it, I took a fancy to a sweet face. Now I think you will acknowledge, M. le Comte, that the Revolution, for all its excesses, is capable of producing a gentleman of honour who knows how to make reparation.”
“Truly, this is no small thing that you have done.”