He still feared Basterga; nay, he lived in such terror, lest the part he had played should come to the scholar's ears, that he prayed for his arrest night and morning, and whenever during the day an especial fit of dread seized him.

But he feared Anne also, for she might betray him to Basterga; and of young Mercier's quality--that he was no Tissot to be brow-beaten, or thrust aside--he had had proof on the night of the fracas at supper.

Essentially a coward, Louis' aim was to be on the stronger side; and once persuaded that this was the side on which they stood, he let them be.
On several consecutive evenings the two passed an hour or more in this silent communion.

On the last the door of Louis' room stood open, the young man had not come in, and for the first time they were really alone.

But the fact did not at once loosen Claude's tongue; and if the girl noticed it, or expected aught to come of it, more than had come of their companionship on other evenings, she hid her feelings with a woman's ease.