"Tread upon it!" the Marquis said ruthlessly.
She trembled; her face, her child's face, grown quite white. But she did not move.
"Tread upon it!" he said again.
And then, without looking down, she moved her foot forward, and touched the ribbon.
CHAPTER XI.
[THE TWO CAMPS.]
"Thank you, Mademoiselle; now you can go," he said.
But he need not have spoken, for the moment his sister had done his bidding she turned from us; before two words had passed his lips she was hurrying back to the house in a passion of grief, her face covered, and her slight figure shaken by sobs that came back to us on the summer air.
The sight stung me to rage; yet for a moment, and by a tremendous effort I restrained myself. I would hear him out.
But he either did not, or would not see the effect he had produced. "There, Messieurs," he said, his face somewhat pale. "I am obliged to your patience. Now you know what I think of your tricolour and your services. It shall shelter neither me nor mine! I hold no parley with assassins."