Madame d’Auffray added, “I do not say that he is other than a perfectly brave and chivalrous gentleman.”
“Oh!” cried Renée, “do not say it, if ever you should imagine it. Bid Roland speak of him. He is changed, oppressed: I did him a terrible wrong ....” She checked herself. “But the chief thing to do is to keep M. d’Henriel away from him. I suspect M. d’Orbec of a design to make them clash: and you, my dear, will explain why, to flatter me. Believe me, I thirst for flattery; I have had none since M. Beauchamp came: and you, so acute, must have seen the want of it in my face. But you, so skilful, Agnès, will manage these men. Do you know, Agnès, that the pride of a woman so incredibly clever as you have shown me you are should resent their intrigues and overthrow them. As for me, I thought I could command M. d’Henriel, and I find he has neither reason in him nor obedience. Singular to say, I knew him just as well a week back as I do now, and then I liked him for his qualities—or the absence of any. But how shall we avoid him on the road to Dianet? He is aware that we are going.”
“Take M. Beauchamp by boat,” said Madame d’Auffray.
“The river winds to within a five minutes’ walk of Dianet; we could go by boat,” Renée said musingly. “I thought of the boat. But does it not give the man a triumph that we should seem to try to elude him? What matter! Still, I do not like him to be the falcon, and Nevil Beauchamp the... little bird. So it is, because we began badly, Agnès!”
“Was it my fault?”
“Mine. Tell me: the legitimate king returns when?”
“In two days or three.”
“And his rebel subjects are to address him—how?”
Madame d’Auffray smote the point of a finger softly on her cheek.
“Will they be pardoned?” said Renée.