At nightfall, under a clear black sky, alive with wakeful fires round head and breast of the great Alp, Chillon and Carinthia strolled out of the village, and he told her some of his hopes. They referred to inventions of destructive weapons, which were primarily to place his country out of all danger from a world in arms; and also, it might be mentioned, to bring him fortune. ‘For I must have money!’ he said, sighing it out like a deliberate oath. He and his uncle were associated in the inventions. They had an improved rocket that would force military chiefs to change their tactics: they had a new powder, a rifle, a model musket—the latter based on his own plans; and a scheme for fortress artillery likely to turn the preponderance in favour of the defensive once again. ‘And that will be really doing good,’ said Chillon, ‘for where it’s with the offensive, there’s everlasting bullying and plundering.’
Carinthia warmly agreed with him, but begged him be sure his uncle divided the profits equally. She discerned what his need of money signified.
Tenderness urged her to say: ‘Henrietta! Chillon.’
‘Well?’ he answered quickly.
‘Will she wait?’
‘Can she, you should ask.’
‘Is she brave?’
‘Who can tell, till she has been tried?’
‘Is she quite free?’
‘She has not yet been captured.’