"This is not the National Assembly, and I talk to ears untutored in such things.

Let us deal rather with the business upon which you are come." She eyed him out of a pale face, with eyes that seemed fascinated.

That short burst of the fiery eloquence that had made him famous revealed him to her in a new light: the light of a strength and capacity above and beyond that which, already, she had perceived was his.
"Will you believe, Monsieur, that it cost me many tears to use you as I did?
If you but knew--" And there she paused abruptly.

She had all but told him of the kiss that she had left upon his unconscious lips that evening on the road to Liege.

"Mon Dieu how I hated myself!" And she shuddered as she spoke.
He observed all this, and with a brusqueness that was partly assumed he hastened to her rescue.
"What is done is done, Citoyenne.