“I assume,” he went on coolly, “that the chevalier, looking about her for her instrument, marked down this dissolute nobleman with a villa at Putney, and decided to accommodate him with a French mistress—a Cressida whom she should coach to act the part of spy to a spy.”
“C’est bien ça,” whispered madame again.
“The chevalier, then, has, we will say, made my lord’s acquaintance; has excited the libidinous old man; has proposed a trip to Paris. The two travel to Dover; and here an unforeseen difficulty supervenes. My lord hears of the Reveillon riots. He refuses to proceed. The chevalier is in despair. She is, however, let us conclude, taking advantage of her position to note the disposition of the new fortifications, when chance puts into her hands the very opportunity for which she has vainly manœuvred. One day there lands from the packet a countrywoman of hers—a beautiful peasant-girl of Liége, whose seduction and abandonment by a rascal aristocrat have made her amenable to any unscrupulous design upon the class that is responsible for her ruin. To the protection of my lord the viscount, the chevalier—by whatever ruse-de-guerre—is happy to commit the demoiselle Théroigne Lambertine, who, poor fool, chances into her hands at the crucial moment.”
Madame, uttering what sounded like a blazing oath, dashed, in an uncontrollable fit of passion, the little beast she held in her arms upon the ground. The poor wretch whipped across the fender and lay screaming with its back broken. She ran and trod upon it with a heavy foot, stilling its cries.
“It is a De Querchy!” she shrieked. “It is so I crush my enemies!”
Then she came towards the bed, her mouth mumbling and mowing, as if the ghost of the departed brute were entered into her.
“You are the devil!” she hissed, “and you will tell me how you shall use your knowledge.”
“In no way,” said Ned.
His throat drummed with nausea. His whole nature rose in revolt against this exhibition of infernal cruelty; but he kept command of himself and of his cold aloofness.
“In no way?” she said thickly. Her jaw seemed to drop. She stared at him. “You will do noting?”