"He will say nothing, he will listen to nothing. He can do what he likes."
"Can he?" muttered Réal.
She sat up on the floor, moved her head up and down several times as if to say that there could be no doubt about that.
"Is he, too, thirsting for my blood?" asked Réal bitterly.
"No, no. It isn't that. You could defend yourself. I could watch over you. I have been watching over you. Only two nights ago I thought I heard noises outside and I went downstairs, fearing for you; your window was open but I could see nobody, and yet I felt. . . . No, it isn't that! It's worse. I don't know what he wants to do. I can't help being fond of him, but I begin to fear him now. When he first came here and I saw him he was just the same – only his hair was not so white – big, quiet. It seemed to me that something moved in my head. He was gentle, you know. I had to smile at him. It was as if I had recognized him. I said to myself. 'That's he, the man himself.' "
"And when I came?" asked Réal with a feeling of dismay.
"You! You were expected," she said in a low tone with a slight tinge of surprise at the question, but still evidently thinking of the Peyrol mystery. "Yes, I caught them at it last evening, he and Catherine in the kitchen, looking at each other and as quiet as mice. I told him he couldn't order me about. Oh, mon chéri, mon chéri, don't you listen to Peyrol – don't let him . . ."
With only a slight touch on his knee she sprang to her feet. Réal stood up too.
"He can do nothing to me," he mumbled.
'Don't tell him anything. Nobody can guess what he thinks, and now even I cannot tell what he means when he speaks. It was as if he knew a secret." She put an accent into those words which made Réal feel moved almost to tears. He repeated that Peyrol could have no influence over him, and he felt that he was speaking the truth. He was in the power of his own word. Ever since he had left the Admiral in a gold-embroidered uniform, impatient to return to his guests, he was on a service for which he had volunteered. For a moment he had the sensation of an iron hoop very tight round his chest. She peered at his face closely, and it was more than he could bear.