And his eyes devoured her.
"Ho! ho!" he said.

"We are not so brave as we pretend to be, it seems.
And yet you dared to chaffer with me?
You thought to thwart me--Tavannes! _Mon Dieu_, Mademoiselle, to what did you trust?
To what did you trust?
Ay, and to what do you trust ?" She knew that by the movement which fear had forced from her she had jeopardized everything.

That she stood to lose all and more than all which she had thought to win by a bold front.

A woman less brave, of a spirit less firm, would have given up the contest, and have been glad to escape so.

But this woman, though her bloodless face showed that she knew what cause she had for fear, and though her heart was indeed sick with terror, held her ground at the point to which she had retreated.