"I have christened my horse since I saw you. His name is Fanfar!"
Fanfar smiled.
"Very good!" he answered, as he patted the animal's glossy side. "We two Fanfars must not shrink from any danger!"
Irène remembered the inundation, but before she could speak the animal and rider were away.
"The carriage is waiting for you," said Madame Ursula, approaching.
"Yes, let us go," answered the girl, with feverish haste, and as she took her seat in the carriage, she said to herself: "Yes, I see what he means—make myself beloved, is what he said!"
Fanfar, directed by some peasants, was now far on the road. He tore off his hat and flung it away. His brow was burning. Was it his violent exertions that had given him this fever? Or was it the anxiety he felt for his adopted father? But Gudel's pale face was obscured by a mocking though sweet face, which flitted between him and all else. How beautiful she was!
The two men, when they fled from the cottage of old Labarre, were entirely routed and discomfited. It was not the Marquis who was afraid of the pistol—he fled from the echo of his father's words, which the old servant had repeated.