“Mademoiselle,” he said, gravely holding out her watch, “I return your trinket safe. I have been ordered to other duties, and I trust that you will have no further cause for anxiety in regard to it.”
She took it with a sudden change of manner, her face flushing a little as she did so. She held it in her hand, looking at it in silence, and Péron could find no excuse for prolonging his stay.
“I bid you adieu, mademoiselle,” he said quietly, “and wish you a safe and pleasant return to Paris.”
She did not reply, and he had his hand on the door before she stopped his retreat.
“You go on some other mission, M. de Calvisson,” she said, giving him a questioning glance.
“Ay, mademoiselle, on another and longer journey,” he replied; and as she said no more, he withdrew.
As he left the cardinal’s house to begin his preparations for his hasty journey, he was angry with himself that he should care so much for Mademoiselle de Nançay’s moods. He did not yet admit to himself that the fair face of Renée haunted him and was nearer his heart than the cardinal’s instructions. She was the daughter of a man who had ruined his father, she was removed from him by a hundred obstacles, yet, with all her ill temper and her pride, she had a greater charm for him than any of the many beauties he had seen since the day of their first meeting at the Château de Nançay; and he had not left the courtyard of Richelieu’s house before she gave him yet more cause to think of her. He was almost at the gate when the woman Ninon came running after him, having pushed her way through the guards at the door. She plucked Péron’s cloak with one hand, in the other holding out the trinket he had just returned to her mistress.
“Mademoiselle wishes you to keep this until your return to Paris,” she said bluntly; “she says that you will then give it to the clockmaker on the Rue de la Ferronnerie.”
Péron’s cheek burned; it was evident that to mademoiselle he was only the clockmaker’s son.
“Tell your mistress that I might lose it,” he said haughtily; “she can readily find a lackey to take it to the clockmaker’s shop.”