“Whom do you mean?” she asked, with a trifle of constraint, and the maid sighed as she selected a ribbon to bind the braid she had finished.
“No one you would remember, Marquise,” she said, shaking her head; “the trouble is you remember none of them, though you make it impossible that they should forget you. Many of those fine gallants of Orleans I was jealous of and glad to see go; but this one, truly now, he seemed to me well worth keeping.”
“Had he a name?” asked the Marquise, removing some rings, and yawning slightly.
“He had,” said the girl, who was unfolding a night robe and shaking the wrinkles from the very Parisian confection of lawn and lace and tiny pink ribbons accenting neck and wrist. When she walked one perceived a slight halt in her step––a reminder of the injury through which her career in Paris had been brought to an end. “He had, my Marquise. I mean the Federal officer, Monroe––Captain Jack, the men called him. Of all the Orleans gentlemen he was the only one I thought fit for a mate for you––the only one I was sorry to see you send away.”
“Send? What an imaginative romancer you are! He went where his duty called him, no doubt. I do not remember that I was responsible. And your choice of him shows you are at least not worldly in your selections, for he was a reckless sort of ranger, I believe, with his sword and his assurance as chief belongings.”
“You forget, Marquise, his courage.”
“Oh, that!” and Judithe made a little gesture of dismissal; “it is nothing in a man, all men should have courage. But, to change the subject, which of the two men have most interest for us tonight, Captain Jack or Dr. Delaven? The latter, I fancy. While you have been chattering I have been making plans.”
The maid ceased her movements about the room in the preparations for the night, and, drawing a low stool closer, listened with all attention.
“Since you are afraid here and too much oppressed by your presentiments to be useful”––she accompanied this derogatory statement with an amused smile––“I conclude it best for you to return to the sea-board at once––before Dr. Delaven and the rest pay their duty visit here.