"Humph!" observed the landlord doubtfully.
After a pause: "I suppose he will be taking her away soon?"
"Her?" The young man rose.
"The Lady Elise!"
"I suppose so," shortly.
"We shall miss her!" grumbled the landlord as he, too, got up and walked over to the fireplace. "I, who never thought to care for any of the fine folk—I, bluff old Pierre Laroche!—say we shall miss her."
"Knows she how it fared with his Excellency's—her father's—estate? That little, or nothing, is left?"
"Aye."
"And she will agree to the promise I wrote you about?" quickly.
"That you—now that the right to your name has been vindicated—are content to accept half the lands in dispute; her ladyship to retain the other half?"