He had removed the guns from the ramparts; he had lowered the draw-bridge across the moat.

The draw-bridge had swayed lightly under Madame Munster's step; why should he not cause it to be raised again, so that she might be kept prisoner?
He had an idea that she would become--in time at least, and on learning the conveniences of the place for making a lady comfortable--a tolerably patient captive.

But the draw-bridge was never raised, and Acton's brilliant visitor was as free to depart as she had been to come.

It was part of his curiosity to know why the deuce so susceptible a man was not in love with so charming a woman.

If her various graces were, as I have said, the factors in an algebraic problem, the answer to this question was the indispensable unknown quantity.