Yet though the women behind her held their breath, she faced him, and did not quail; and to that, she fancied, she owed it that he controlled himself.
"You will not ?" he repeated, as if he could not understand such resistance to his will--as if he could not credit his ears.

"You will not ?" But after that, when he had said it three times, he laughed; a laugh, however, with a snarl in it that chilled her blood.
"You bargain, do you ?" he said.

"You will have the last tittle of the price, will you?
And have thought of this and that to put me off, and to gain time until your lover, who is all to you, comes to save you?
Oh, clever girl! clever! But have you thought where you stand--woman?
Do you know that if I gave the word to my people they would treat you as the commonest baggage that tramps the Froidmantel?
Do you know that it rests with me to save you, or to throw you to the wolves whose ravening you hear ?" And he pointed to the window.

"Minister?
Priest ?" he continued grimly.

"_Mon Dieu_, Mademoiselle, I stand astonished at my moderation.
You chatter to me of ministers and priests, and the one or the other, when it might be neither! When you are as much and as hopelessly in my power to-day as the wench in my kitchen! You! You flout me, and make terms with me! You!" And he came so near her with his dark harsh face, his tone rose so menacing on the last word, that her nerves, shattered before, gave way, and, unable to control herself, she flinched with a low cry, thinking he would strike her.
He did not follow, nor move to follow; but he laughed a low laugh of content.