I was pleading so desperately that she stopped me, one hand grasping my sleeve.
"Yes, of course. I am sure you could never do that purposely. But I do not know what to say, how to explain. You must go at once. Can you not realize my position if you are discovered here? What--what Captain Le Gaire would say?"
"Very easily," my voice insensibly hardening at the memory, "and I should like to remain to meet him, if that were the only danger. No, please stand exactly where you are, Miss Hardy, so as to keep me in the shadow. Thank you. There is a man sitting on a bench yonder just within the orchard. He has been there for the last twenty minutes, and it is his presence which has made it impossible for me to get away. Can I escape in any manner through the house?"
She shook her head, her glance wandering from the lighted room out again into the night.
"No; there is only the one door."
"Who are here besides Le Gaire and your father?"
"A half-dozen officers, two from the Louisiana regiment, the rest belonging to the staff; they are just ending up a feast in the dining-room."
"And is the house under guard?"
She hesitated, looking me now squarely in the eyes, her face clearly revealed as the light from within fell upon it.
"Why do you ask?--for military reasons?"