She had surrendered the point, and her escort drew a sigh of relief as he quickened his own pace to keep up with her, and all of them moved at a better gait. As his horse came abreast of hers, she gave him a sidelong glance.
“Manifestly, you were not born a fool, M. de Calvisson,” she said, “if you were born poor.”
Péron smiled in spite of himself.
“It was only strategy, mademoiselle,” he said.
“I do not yet know how we passed Ruel,” she replied angrily, “though I have travelled over this road a thousand times.”
“You did not observe the cross-roads when we reached them,” he replied smiling; “there is this way by which Ruel can be entirely avoided.”
“I am dull,” she said; “I should have known that there are ever many ways around the hole of a fox.”
Péron turned his face away to hide a smile at her covert thrust at Richelieu’s house at Ruel.
After this they rode a long way in silence; she was obviously in an ill humor and vouchsafed only monosyllables in reply to any remark of her escort. As night approached it grew colder too and more unpleasant; a thick mist settled on the more distant landscape, and the meadows near at hand lay dark and deserted, while the trees loomed gigantic by the way. The moon was in its first quarter and set early, leaving a starry sky in which only a few light clouds drifted. There was no sound but the even beat of their horses’ hoofs on the hard road. It was already pitch dark when they passed through St. Germain-en-Laye, and mademoiselle stubbornly refused to halt, having now veered around to a steady desire to reach Poissy with all speed. They trotted down the main street of the town, passing the inn, where the revellers were in full sway, and were out on the highroad to Poissy again. Their way now lay through thick forest, and Péron was not without uneasiness, seeing her mood and not knowing the exact extent of the risk they ran of defeat. He would infinitely have preferred the clash of swords to this silent ride through unknown perils, with the responsibility of controlling a wilful and quick-witted young woman who was bent on his discomfiture.
It was with a sharp sense of relief that he saw the lights of Poissy ahead, and he unconsciously quickened his horse’s gait, which brought the others up at a trot. As they reached the gates of the town, mademoiselle held out her hand to him.