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VALERIE'S GAOLER.
My child, said the Dowager, and her eyes dwelt on Valerie with a look of studied gentleness, "why will you not be reasonable ?" The constant reflection that Garnache was at large, making his way back to Paris to stir up vengeance for the outrage put upon him, was not without a certain chastening effect upon the Dowager.

She had a way of saying that she had as good a stomach for a fight as any man in France, and a fight there should be if it came to it and Garnache should return to assail Condillac.

Yet a certain pondering of the consequences, a certain counting of the cost--ordinarily unusual to her nature led her to have recourse to persuasion and to a gentleness no less unusual.
Valerie's eyes were raised to hers with a look that held more scorn than wonder.

They were standing in the antechamber of Valerie's room.