I kissed her on the cheek, and felt her soft perfumed hair sweep across my forehead, as, tremulous with delight and emotion, I drew back, abashed by my own temerity, for I was but a boy; and the warning of the kind Marquis tingled in my ears and in my heart.
'Poor child; it looks quite frightened,' said the Countess, smiling with the most provoking coolness.
'Madame, I have a king for my rival.'
'Take courage.'
'I have never lacked it.'
'He who loses heart, loses all, in a game of this kind at least. From this time we are allies, sworn friends; when you visit me again, do not enter by the porte cochère, but by the secret door at the back of the château, remember.'
At that moment I perceived the fair form of the Countess's golden-haired attendant, standing close by the arras which she had raised unbidden. She must have seen some portion of the last episode; for her fine eyes were fixed, I thought, somewhat pityingly on me, and disdainfully on her mistress. This little provincial in her plain coif was delicately beautiful in face, hands, and form; but eclipsed and overshadowed as she was by the brilliance and vivacity of the demonstrative Countess, I took but little notice of her then.
The moment she perceived Nicola, Madame d'Amboise coloured, and said to me rather sharply,
'Farewell, M. Arthur; you must now keep your appointment in Paris with M. le Marquis and the Marechal de Logis of the Scottish Guard; and remember that when all is arranged, I shall always be delighted to see you at the Château d'Amboise.' She rang a handbell, and Antoine appeared.
'Tell the master of the stables to give this gentleman my bay horse Dagobert, which he will please to keep as a gift from me. Now go, M. Arthur; and by the haste with which you return, I shall judge of your regard and your gratitude. Adieu.' In ten minutes more I was on the road to Paris.