[Count Hannibal by Stanley J. Weyman]@TWC D-Link bookCount Hannibal CHAPTER I 10/26
Only at rare intervals, in the embrasure of a window or the recess of a door, a couple talked softly.
At the farther end, near the head of the staircase which led to the hall below, and the courtyard, a group of armed Swiss lounged on guard.
Mademoiselle shot a keen glance up and down, then she turned to her lover, her face hot with indignation. "Why did you leave me ?" she asked.
"Why did you leave me, if you could not come back at once? Do you understand, sir," she continued, "that it was at your instance I came to Paris, that I came to this Court, and that I look to you for protection ?" "Surely," he said.
"And--" "And do you think Carlat and his wife fit guardians for me? Should I have come or thought of coming to this wedding, but for your promise, and Madame your cousin's? If I had not deemed myself almost your wife," she continued warmly, "and secure of your protection, should I have come within a hundred miles of this dreadful city? To which, had I my will, none of our people should have come." "Dreadful? Pardieu, not so dreadful," he answered, smiling, and striving to give the dispute a playful turn.
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