Madame Carlat, then, went not a whit beyond the mark in her argument. But
Mademoiselle had made up her mind, and was not to be dissuaded.
"If I am to be Monsieur's wife," she said with quivering nostrils, "shall
I fear his servants?"
And opening the door herself, for the others would not, she called. The
man who answered was a Norman; and short of stature, and wrinkled and low-
browed of feature, with a thatch of hair and a full beard, he seemed the
embodiment of the women's apprehensions. Moreover, his patois of the
cider-land was little better than German to them; their southern, softer
tongue was sheer Italian to him. But he seemed not ill-disposed, or
Mademoiselle's air overawed him; and presently she made him understand,
and with a nod he descended to carry her message.
Then Mademoiselle's heart began to beat; and beat more quickly when she
heard his step--alas! she knew it already, knew it from all others--on
the stairs. The table was set, the card must be played, to win or lose.
It might be that with the low opinion he held of women he would think her
reconciled to her lot; he would think this an overture, a step towards
kinder treatment, one more proof of the inconstancy of the lower and the
weaker sex, made to be men's playthings. And at that thought her eyes
grew hot with rage. But if it were so, she must still put up with it.
She must still put up with it! She had sent for him, and he was
coming--he was at the door!
He entered, and she breathed more freely. For once his face lacked the
sneer, the look of smiling possession, which she had come to know and
hate. It was grave, expectant, even suspicious; still harsh and dark,
akin, as she now observed, to the low-browed, furrowed face of the rider
who had summoned him. But the offensive look was gone, and she could
breathe.
He closed the door behind him, but he did not advance into the room.
"At your pleasure, Mademoiselle?" he said simply. "You sent for me, I
think."
She was on her feet, standing before him with something of the
submissiveness of Roxana before her conqueror.
"I did," she said; and stopped at that, her hand to her side as if she
could not continue. But presently in a low voice, "I have heard," she
went on, "what you said, Monsieur, after I lost consciousness."
"Yes?" he said; and was silent. Nor did he lose his watchful look.
"I am obliged to you for your thought of me," she continued in a faint
voice, "and I shall be still further obliged--I speak to you thus quickly
and thus early--if you will grant me a somewhat longer time."