'I want to ask a favour.' He looked at me somewhat fretfully; with a gleam of wildness in his eyes that betrayed how the iron was, little by little, eating into his heart.
He had started after breakfast as gaily as a bridegroom, but gradually he had sunk below himself; and now he had much ado to curb his impatience.
'Of me ?' he said bitterly.

'What is it ?' 'I wish to have a few words with Mademoiselle--alone,' I said.
'Alone ?' he exclaimed in astonishment.
'Yes,' I replied, without blenching, though his face grew dark.

'For the matter of that, you can be within call all the time, if you please.

But I have a reason for wishing to ride a little way with her.' 'To tell her something ?' 'Yes.' 'Then you can tell it to me,' he retorted suspiciously.

'Mademoiselle, I will answer for it, has no desire to--' 'See me or speak to me?
No,' I said.