“Some Frenchman’s hatred of the English, they say.”
“But I am not French.”
“They do not know. You speak French as perfectly as English—ah, Monsieur, Monsieur, I believe you are whatever you say.” Pain and appeal rang from her lips.
“I am only an honest tailor,” he answered gently. He ruled his face to calmness, for he read the agony in the girl’s face, and troubled as he was, he wished to show her that he had no fear.
“It is for what you were they will arrest you,” she said helplessly, and as though he needed to have all made clear to him. “Oh, Monsieur,” she continued, in a broken voice, “it would shame me so to have you made a prisoner in Chaudiere—before all these silly people, who turn with the wind. I should not lift my head—but yes, I should lift my head!” she added hurriedly. “I should tell them all they lied—every one—the idiots! The Seigneur—”
“Well, what of the Seigneur-Rosalie?”
Her own name on his lips—the sound of it dimmed her eyes.
“Monsieur Rossignol does not know you. He neither believes nor disbelieves. He said to me that if you wanted consideration, to command him, for in Chaudiere he had heard nothing but good of you. If you stayed, he would see that you had justice—not persecution. I saw him two hours ago.”
She said the last words shyly, for she was thinking why the Seigneur had spoken as he did—that he had taken her opinion of Monsieur as his guide, and she had not scrupled to impress him with her views. The Seigneur was in danger of becoming prejudiced by his sentiments.
A wave of feeling passed over Charley, a rushing wave of sympathy for this simple girl, who, out of a blind confidence, risked so much for him. Risk there certainly was, if she—if she cared for him. It was cruelty not to reassure her.