The door held my eye, as I turned the corner, by its very massiveness, and just as I reached it, it was flung open with a crash, and a girl rushed into the street. She stopped as she saw me standing there, and my hat was sweeping the pavement as I caught her eyes on mine.
“You seem a man of honor,” she said, and pressed her hand against her breast as though to calm the beating of her heart.
“A thousand thanks, Mademoiselle,” I answered, and I saw that even the stark emotion which possessed her could not bemask the beauty of her face. “Believe me, I shall be most happy to prove it.”
“You have a sword?” she asked, still eying me with attention.
I threw back my cloak and touched the hilt.
“And know how to use it?”
“Try me, Mademoiselle,” I said simply.
The color swept back into her face and her eyes narrowed with sudden resolution.
“Then follow me, Monsieur,” she said, and turned back through the gateway.
I was at her heels as she ran across the little court and plunged into a dark doorway beyond. I paused an instant to draw my sword, dropping my cloak that it might not cumber me, and then clattered up the stair behind her. It was dark and narrow and of many turnings, so that she, who knew the place, had reached the top while I was stumbling along midway, cursing the darkness. But she awaited me, and as I reached her side held out her hand to me. My own closed over it in an instant and found it soft and warm and trembling. Here was an adventure after my own heart, and I had had so few adventures!