"Ah! very prettily said, señor. I perceive your objection then: you think me fairer without than within. I dare not contend you are altogether wrong in such conjecture. Faith, why not, señor? It would be strange otherwise. All lives do not flow gently amid prosaic routine, and my ship has been often enough upon the rocks. I have learned reasons of deceit and cruelty in the hard school of experience. If, in years of trial, I have grown hard of judgment, reckless of action, it is because others have been harsh with me. Power is naturally tyrannical. But then what use for us to dwell upon the past? So you came to-night to meet another? 'T is strange the risks a man will run for so infinitesimal a reward. Yet, Mother of God, it gives me a pleasant tale to pour into the ears of him you call De Noyan when we meet again to-morrow. If I mistake not, the one you seek in secret bears the name of that gay gallant. At least, she masquerades in this wilderness under the title of Madame de Noyan. But 'tis you, not he, her reputed husband, forsooth, who seeks her chamber in the midnight. Truly 'tis a pretty tale of romance."
It flashed upon me, as she thus lightly spoke, what infernal use an unscrupulous woman might easily make of this. The imputation lurking in her words aroused me to defiant anger, yet before I could collect my thought to make reply, she marked my hesitancy and continued with bitter sarcasm.
"Madame possesses so sweetly innocent a face I should never have suspected her of being an immodest wanton, were it not for the evidence of my own eyes. 'T is a strange world, señor. Yet I have often heard this is the way with these grandes dames of France."
"It is only your own foulness of thought which places such construction upon my coming here," I broke forth, determined I would face her down at every hazard. "You know well my purpose; I came seeking to aid one you held prisoner. It is all because of your sin, not ours. You have robbed this Chevalier de Noyan of all his manhood by your cursed smiles and honeyed speech. You have made him forget his sworn duty unto her who is his wife."
"How interesting you grow," she interrupted, her lips curling, her eyes hardening. "Señor, you grow almost handsome when your eyes flash. So you felt called upon to devote yourself to this poor, misused, neglected wife? I trust you have not found it an unpleasant service, or entirely without reward?"