He started and turned to us in half-absent surprise, as if he had not known of our presence nor, indeed, quite realized it now. He was both pale and rumpled, like one who has not closed an eye all night.
"Any news here?" he made Norman answer.
"No, monsieur, unless his Grace has information. We have heard nothing."
"And the woman?"
"Sticks to it mademoiselle told her never a word."
Lucas stood still, his eyes travelling dully over the group of us, as if he expected somewhere to find help. At the same time he was not in the least thinking of us. He looked straight at me for a full minute before he awoke to my identity.
"You!"
"Yes, M. de Lorraine," I said, with all the respectfulness I could muster, which may not have been much. Considering our parting, I was ready for any violence. But after the first moment of startlement he regarded me in a singularly lack-lustre way, while he inquired without apparent resentment how I came there.
"With M. le Duc de St. Quentin," I grinned at him. "We and M. de Mayenne are friends now."
I could not rouse him even to curiosity, it seemed. But he turned abruptly to the men with more life than he had yet shown.