But to-night they seemed to have drawn nearer in spirit to each other, and that, maybe, it was that prompted Valerie to sigh, and in her sweet, unthinking innocence to say again:
“I am truly sorry, Monsieur de Garnache, that our sojourn here is coming to an end.”
He was no coxcomb, and he set no false value on the words. He laughed for answer, as he rejoined:
“Not so am I, mademoiselle. Nor shall I know peace of mind again until this ill-omened chateau is a good three leagues or so behind us. Sh! What was that?”
He came instantly to his feet, his face intent and serious. He had been sitting at his ease in an armchair, over the back of which he had tossed the baldric from which his sword depended. The clang of the heavy door below, striking the wall as it was pushed open, had reached his ears.
“Can it be time already?” asked mademoiselle; yet a panic took her, and she blenched a little.
He shook his head.
“Impossible,” said he; “it is not more than ten o’clock. Unless that fool Arsenio has blundered—” He stopped. “Sh!” he whispered. “Some one is coming here.”
And suddenly he realized the peril that might lie in being found thus in her company. It alarmed him more than did the visit itself, so unusual at this hour. He saw that he had not time to reach the guard-room; he would be caught in the act of coming forth, and that might be interpreted by the Dowager or her son—if it should happen to be one or the other of them—as a hurried act of flight such as guilt might prompt. Perhaps he exaggerated the risk; but their fortunes at Condillac had reached a point where they must not be jeopardized by any chance however slight.
“To your chamber, mademoiselle,” he whispered fearfully, and he pointed to the door of the inner room. “Lock yourself in. Quick! Sh!” And he signed frantically to her to go silently.