Suspicion spread like an oil stain in her evil mind.

She stepped forward and caught the girl by one of her limp arms.

Marius, paler than his stunning had left him, leaned more heavily against the door-post, and looked on with bloodshot eyes.
If ever maiden avowed the secret of her heart, it seemed to him that Valerie avowed it then.
The Marquise shook her angrily.
"What was he to you, girl?
What was he to you ?" she demanded shrilly.
And the girl, no more than half conscious of what she was saying, made answer: "The bravest gentleman, the noblest friend I have ever known." Pah! The Dowager dropped her arm and turned to issue a command to Fortunio.

But already the fellow had departed.

His concern was not with women, but with the man who had escaped him.