"He will come," he muttered, stooping and speaking under his breath, his eyes on the other's face.

"But play him lightly.

He is in an ugly mood.

Please him, if you can, and it may serve." The eyes of the two met an instant, and those of Foucauld--so the King called his Huguenot favourite--betrayed some surprise; for Count Hannibal and he were not intimate.

But seeing that the other was in earnest, he raised his brows in acknowledgment.