“I saw it,” he said quietly. “It was for that reason I turned my back to you.”
I stared at him in amazement.
“To help you overcome temptation,” he explained. “One gentleman does not break his word by stabbing another in the back.”
A warm flush of pleasure sprang to my cheeks. Then a sudden vision rose before me of a limp body in Republican uniform——
“But you——” I stopped, confused, conscious that I was uttering my thought aloud, and that the thought was not a pleasant one.
“Ah,” he went on, smiling sadly, “you would say that I stabbed that poor fellow in the back. Believe me, monsieur, I should have preferred a thousand times to meet him face to face. But I had no choice. A moment’s delay, and I should have been taken. So I hardened my heart and struck.”
“Pardon me, monsieur,” I murmured.
He nodded, the shadow still on his face.
“Fortune of war,” he said, with affected lightness. “We must make the best of it. And now, M. de Tavernay,” he added, rising, “you will find your horse awaiting you outside yonder door, as fresh as when you started with him from Tours. I have secured another in a less peremptory way than I found necessary to adopt with you. It is foolhardy for me to linger here. I must push on at once. But you may be weary, you may wish to avoid the heat of the day; you may, in a word, prefer to continue your journey alone and at your leisure. If so, farewell; but if you are ready to go on, I assure you that I shall be very glad of your company.”
“Thank you, monsieur,” I said, my decision taken on the instant. “I am quite ready to go.”