By an effort I mastered myself, and in tones calm and level, that betrayed nothing of the tempest in my soul-- "It is not welcome, mademoiselle," I answered.

"I have excellent reasons for not desiring to meet Monsieur de Marsac." "Excellent, indeed, are they!" lisped Saint-Eustache, with an ugly droop at the corners of his mouth.

"I doubt not you'll find it hard to offer a plausible reason for having left him and his sister without news that you were alive." "Monsieur," said I at random, "why will you drag in his sister's name ?" "Why ?" he echoed, and he eyed me with undisguised amusement.

He was standing erect, his head thrown back, his right arm outstretched from the shoulder, and his hand resting lightly upon the gold mount of his beribboned cane.

He let his eyes wander from me to Roxalanne, then back again to me.