“With all my heart. For now I know that we shall be friends. You will be relieved of an odious part; for you are too handsome not to have in keeping some other heart besides your own.”
He then began gaily to describe some of his humorous adventures, and continued in this vein till they arrived once more at the chateau. Sometimes the countess laughed, but he could see that her sprightliness was gone. When they came under the porte cochere he sprang from his horse and assisted her to dismount; and he did not relinquish her hand till he had given it a friendly pressure. She stood motionless on the steps, centered a look on him which he failed to interpret, then ran swiftly into the hall, thence to her room, the door of which she bolted.
“It would not be difficult,” he mused, communing with the thought which had come to him. “It would be something real, and not a chimera.”
He turned over the horses to the grooms, and went in search of Fitzgerald to inform him of his discovery; but the Englishman was nowhere to be found. Neither was Madame. Being thirsty, he proceeded to the dining hall. Fadette, the maid, was laying the silver.
“Ah, the `pantry maid,'” he thought. “Good day, Fadette.”
“Fadette, you are charming. Has any one ever told you that?”
“Have they?” lessening the distance between them.
“Sometimes,” faintly. She could not withstand his glance, so she retired a few more steps, only to find herself up with the wall.
With a laugh he sprang forward and caught her face between his hands and imprinted a kiss on her left cheek. Suddenly she wrenched herself loose, uttered a frightened cry and fled down the pantryway.
“What's the matter with the girl?” he muttered aloud. “I wanted to ask her some questions.”
“Ask them of me, Monsieur,” said a voice from the doorway.
Maurice wheeled. It was Madame, but her face expressed nothing. He saw that he had been caught. The humor of the situation got the better of him, and he laughed. Madame ignored this unseemly hilarity.
“Monsieur, is this the way you return my kindness?”
“Permit me to apologize. As to your kindness, I have just discovered that it is of a most dangerous quality.”
“I mean that I could not kiss Madame the countess with the same sense of security as I could the--pantry maid,” bowing.