I was glad of it, for if I was to be of service to her we must be friends.

Suddenly she said, "You know what it means--I can't tell you; you know ?" "Aye, I know," said I, "none better.

But the Duke shan't have his way." "The Duke?
If it were only the Duke--Ah!" She stopped, a new alarm in her eyes.

She searched my face eagerly.

Of deliberate purpose I set it to an immutable stolidity.
"Already he's very docile," said I."See how M.de Perrencourt turned and twisted him, and sent him off crestfallen." She laid her hand on my arm.
"If I might tell you," she said, "a thing that few know here; none but the King and his near kindred and one or two more." "But how came you to know of it ?" I interrupted.
"I--I also came to know it," she murmured.
"There are many ways of coming to know a thing," said I."One is by being told; another, madame, is by finding out.