“Monsieur Valmond,” she said, “I neither suspect nor accuse; I only feel. There is something terribly uncertain in this cause of yours, in your claims. You have no right to waste lives.”
“To waste lives?” he asked mechanically.
“Yes; the Government is to proceed against you.”
“Ah, yes,” he answered. “Monsieur De la Riviere has seen to that; but he must pay for his interference.”
“That is beside the point. If a force comes against you—what then?”
“Then I will act as becomes a Napoleon,” he answered, rather grandly.
So there was a touch of the bombastic in his manner even yet! She laughed a little ironically. Then all at once her thoughts reverted to Elise, and some latent cruelty in her awoke. Though she believed the girl, she would accuse the man, the more so, because she suddenly became aware that his eyes were fixed on herself in ardent admiration.
“You might not have a convenient window,” she said, with deliberate, consuming suggestion.
His glance never wavered, though he understood instantly what she meant. Well, she had discovered that! He flushed.
“Madame,” he said, “I hope that I am a gentleman at heart.”