"And you need have no fear.

You are among friends." Her eyes had travelled over my sodden clothes, the haggard pallor of my face, and the blood that stained my doublet from the shoulder downward.
From all this she had drawn her conclusions that I was a hunted rebel.
She drew me into the room, and, closing the window, she dragged the heavy curtain across it, thereby giving me a proof of confidence that smote me hard--impostor that I was.
"I crave your pardon, mademoiselle, for having startled you by the rude manner of my coming," said I, and never in my life had I felt less at ease than then.

"But I was exhausted and desperate.

I am wounded, I have ridden hard, and I swam the river." The latter piece of information was vastly unnecessary, seeing that the water from my clothes was forming a pool about my feet.

"I saw you from below; mademoiselle, and surely, I thought, so sweet a lady would have pity on an unfortunate." She observed that my eyes were upon her, and in an act of instinctive maidenliness she bore her hand to her throat to draw the draperies together and screen the beauties of her neck from my unwarranted glance, as though her daily gown did not reveal as much and more of them.
That act, however, served to arouse me to a sense of my position.