“Remain here, sir,” she replied, with some effusion, “and follow us when you are rested.”
“Follow you?” I inquired. “Do you then go with Monsieur de Lavedan?”
“No, Anne,” said the Vicomte politely from the carriage. “It will be tiring you unnecessarily. You were better advised to remain here until my return.”
I doubt not that the poor Vicomte was more concerned with how she would tire him than with how the journey might tire her. But the Vicomtesse was not to be gainsaid. The Chevalier had sneered when the Vicomte spoke of returning. Madame had caught that sneer, and she swung round upon him now with the vehement fury of a virago.
“He'll not return, you think, you Judas!” she snarled at him, her lean, swarthy face growing very evil to see. “But he shall—by God, he shall! And look to your skin when he does, monsieur the catchpoll, for, on my honour, you shall have a foretaste of hell for your trouble in this matter.”
The Chevalier smiled with much restraint. “A woman's tongue,” said he, “does no injury.”
“Will a woman's arm, think you?” demanded that warlike matron. “You musk-stinking tipstaff, I'll—”
“Anne, my love,” implored the Vicomte soothingly, “I beg that you will control yourself.”
“Shall I submit to the insolence of this misbegotten vassal? Shall I—”
“Remember rather that it does not become the dignity of your station to address the fellow. We avoid venomous reptiles, but we do not pause to reproach them with their venom. God made them so.”