"You need not pretend to be shy," Rupert said, laughing. "I can guess what 'the fact is.' I suppose that there is somebody in your case too, and that you are just waiting to be married till mademoiselle goes."
Margot laughed and coloured, and was going to speak, when the door opened, and the marquis beckoned him in.
"Mr. Holliday," he said, as Rupert on entering found Adele leaning on her father's shoulder, with a rosy colour, and a look of happiness upon her face. "I have laid my commands upon my daughter, Mademoiselle Adele de Pignerolles, to receive you as her future husband, and I find no disposition whatever on her part to defy my authority, as she has that of his Majesty.
"There, my children, may you be happy together!"
So saying, he left the room, and went to look after the horse, leaving Adele and Rupert to their new-found happiness.
[Chapter 25]: Flight and Pursuit.
It was early in the afternoon when Monsieur Perrot, with his daughter behind him on a pillion, and his servant riding a short distance in the rear, rode under the gateway of Parthenay. A party of soldiers were at the gateway, and a gendarmerie officer stood near. The latter glanced carelessly at the passport which the merchant showed him, and the travellers rode on.
"Peste!" one of the soldiers said; "what is monsieur the Marquis de Pignerolles doing here, riding about dressed as a bourgeois, with a young woman at his back?"
"Which is the Marquis de Pignerolles?" one of the others said.
"He who has just ridden by. He was colonel of my regiment, and I know him as well as I do you."