"You have met Cousin Cécile?"
"Yes."
"Jéhan tells me she is pretty."
"It ... it is true."
"You do not appear very certain, sir."
"It is because I am too certain. She is as lovely as she is good."
"Then it is she who called you M. le Marquis?"
What woman could have resisted the touch of raillery?
But Morice was very serious in his reply.
"It is for that reason that I am Marquis de Varenac, and cry 'Vive le roi,'" he answered. "She showed me what loyalty meant. I have been fool and knave, Gay, but pray Heaven she may not know it, till I have proved my honour."