"It's the simple fact. And I've heard about you since."
"From Leslie? Of course you would."
"No; she only said, unaccountably: 'A cousin,' leaving me to guess whether it was he, she, or it. I'm thinking of Joe Dollfus."
Suddenly he held his hand up. He had fine senses. "I can hear wheels in the snow. You haven't told me your name."
"Fenella."
"Well, Cousin Fenella! Are we going to be friends?"
"Why not?" faintly.
"I shall be discreet, you know, about—things at La Palèze."
The girl's eyes brimmed. Instead of this face, blonde, confident, and animal, another one—lean, spiritualized, with far-seeking, visionary eyes, swam through her tears. "Paul! Paul!" Like any poor maid, beset, at bay in a robber-haunted forest, her heart called to her true love.
"In return, will you keep a secret for me?"