"When Colonel Tournay parted from me," said Edmé impressively, "he swore that we should some day meet again. He would keep his word if it were possible. Fate has decreed that he shall not come to me; she decrees, instead, that I shall go to him."
"Mademoiselle," cried Agatha in a horrified tone, "what are you saying? Think of your rank, think of your family, your pride of birth!"
"My rank!" laughed Edmé scornfully. "Did that avail me when I crossed the river Loire? My pride of birth! Did that protect and bring me safely out of France? A brave and loyal man was my sole protection. He is now in the greatest danger. I am going to him."
There was a ring in her voice as she spoke that seemed to bid defiance to the long line of ancestry behind her.
"Now that you know that I am not to be swayed from my determination, will you go with me or remain here?"
"I shall go with you, mademoiselle."
"We must leave here clandestinely, Agatha. I little thought, when the kindly Grafin von Waldenmeer took me under her roof, I should leave it like this."
"We shall have to travel through France in the disguise of peasants, mademoiselle," said Agatha.
"We have had some experience in that disguise, Agatha. You know how well I shall be able to play my part."
From Hagenhof, starting at dead of night, the two women traveled to Paris. It took them three weeks to make the journey that they had once made in five days. But they were obliged to travel slowly, as became two women of their class.