We had come to save Pavannes' life at the risk of our own; we found him to be a villain! Here was Mirepoix owning himself a treacherous wretch, a conspirator against a woman; we sympathised with him.

The priest had come upon a work of charity and rescue; we loathed the sound of his voice, and shrank from him, we knew not why, seeming only to read a dark secret, a gloomy threat in each doubtful word he uttered.

He was the strangest enigma of all.

Why did we fear him?
Why did Madame de Pavannes, who apparently had known him before, shudder at the touch of his hand?
Why did his shadow come even between her and her sister, and estrange them?
so that from the moment Pavannes' wife saw him standing by Diane's side, she forgot that the latter had come to save, and looked on her in doubt and sorrow, almost with repugnance.
We left the Vidame going back to the fireplace.

He stooped to set down the candle by the hearth.