“There,” she said, “I defy any one to detect you now. And remember, as long as you wear those rags you are not to wash face or hands. Your business is none of mine, but you are too pretty a fellow to be permitted to run your head into a noose.”
“Thank you, my dear!” I said again, and rose and took up my hamper.
She came to me and stood on tiptoe.
“A salute for the Nation, citizen,” she said, and kissed me on either cheek. “If you return this way you are to stop here and inquire for Ninette. She will be glad to see you. Adieu—and may the good God have you in His keeping.”
I turned westward along the street, unheeding the curious glances cast at me, with a conscience not wholly at peace. I had secured these generous provisions under false pretenses. I had not merited those pure kisses.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE PONIARD AGAIN.
Not until a turn of the road hid me from the village and I was satisfied that I was unobserved did I turn aside and, again sheltering myself behind a friendly hedge, gain the thicket which stretched along the ridge. Then plunging into its cover I hastened back with what speed I could toward the spot where I had left my comrade, uneasily conscious that I had lingered at the inn longer than I had thought to do, for the sun told me that noon had come and gone.
So it was with an anxiety which increased at every step that I broke my way through the underbrush, unheeding the briers which clutched at my clothes and stung hands and face—an anxiety which leaped to mortal anguish as I came out suddenly into the little amphitheatre where I had left her and saw at a glance that it was empty.
I set down the hamper with a groan of agony and wiped the cold sweat from my forehead. Fool!—idiot that I was to leave her unguarded for so long a time! Some one had blundered into our retreat, had discovered her, had taken her prisoner. This thicket doubtless harbored many scoundrels seeking to evade the draft. Perhaps even at this moment——
“Good-day, M. de Tavernay,” called a gay voice; and I turned my head mechanically, to see her emerging from the thicket, her face alight. “So you have returned!”