"Really, Gabriel! you fill my cup of joy to the full, in telling me that. I am, as you know, very ignorant in heraldic matters; I do not know the Exmès. Down at Vimoutiers I called you Gabriel; and my heart had no need of a sweeter name than that. That is the name that I love; and if you think that your other name will satisfy the king, why, all is well, and I am happy indeed. Whether you are Exmès or Guise or Montmorency, as long as you are not called Montgommery, all is well."
"And why, then, must I not be a Montgommery?" asked Gabriel, beginning to be alarmed.
"Oh, the Montgommerys, our neighbors down yonder, have apparently done the king some injury, for he hates them bitterly."
"Indeed!" said Gabriel, who began to feel a choking sensation in his throat; "but is it the Montgommerys who have injured the king, or is it rather the king who has injured the Montgommerys?"
"My father is too kind-hearted to have ever been unjust, Gabriel."
"Kind to his daughter, yes," said Gabriel; "but where his enemies are concerned—"
"He may be terrible," replied Diane, "as you are against the enemies of France and the king. But what does it matter, and what have the Montgommerys to do with us, Gabriel?"
"But if I were a Montgommery, Diane?"
"Oh, do not say that, dear."
"But if it should be so?"