"Yes. Jack, these French servants don't understand such things. Be more careful, for Lorraine's sake."
"But—I will—but did the note reach her?"
His aunt smiled. "Yes. I took the responsibility upon myself, and there will be no gossip."
Jack leaned over and kissed the amused mouth, and the old lady gave him a little hug and told him to go and walk on the terrace.
The groom was already there, holding a note in one hand, gilt-banded cap in the other.
His first letter from Lorraine! He opened it feverishly. In the middle of a thin sheet of note-paper was written the motto of the De Nesvilles, "Tiens ta Foy."
Beneath, in a girlish hand, a single line:
"I shall wait for you at dusk. Lorraine."
All night long, as he lay half asleep on his pillow, the words repeated themselves in his drowsy brain: "Tiens ta Foy!" "Tiens ta Foy!" (Keep thy Faith!). Aye, he would keep it unto death—he knew it even in his slumber. But he did not know how near to death that faith might lead him.
The wood-sparrows were chirping outside his window when he awoke. It was scarcely dawn, but he heard the maid knocking at his door, and the rattle of silver and china announced the morning coffee.