Part 31 (1/2)

Aer Her pallor deepened ”My God!” she said, and looked at him in horror And in horror she asked him presently: ”You are married--married to that--?”

”Not yet But I shall be, soon And let norant conteood and pure as you are, Aline She has wit and talent which have placed her where she is and shall carry her a deal farther And she has the wouided by natural instincts in the selection of her ed the cord

”You will descend this instant!” she told him fiercely ”That you should dare to make a comparison between me and that”

”And my wife-to-be,” he interrupted, before she could speak the infa for the footman, and leapt down ”My compliments,” said he, furiously, ”to the assassin you are to marry” He slammed the door ”Drive on,” he bade the coachan, leaving hie Gradually, as he walked back to the inn, his anger cooled Gradually, as he cooled, he perceived her point of view, and in the end forgave her It was not her fault that she thought as she thought Her rearing had been such as to make her look upon every actress as a trull, just as it had qualified her cale of convenience into which she was invited

He got back to the inn to find the company at table Silence fell when he entered, so suddenly that of necessity it must be supposed he was himself the subject of the conversation Harlequin and Coluht up into the chariot of a princess and carried off by her; and it was a tale that had lost nothing in the telling

Cli what Columbine had called this romance of hers Clearly her Scaramouche must be vastly other than he had hitherto appeared, or else that great lady and he would never have used such fa him no better than he was, Climene had made him her own And now she was to receive the reward of disinterested affection

Even old Binet's secret hostility towards Andre-Louisrevelation He had pinched his daughter's ear quite playfully ”Ah, ah, trust you to have penetrated his disguise, my child!”

She shrank resentfully from that implication

”But I did not I took him for what he seehed ”To be sure, you did But like your father, as once a gentleentle different from those hom misfortune has compelled you hitherto to herd You kneell as I did that he never caught that trick of haughtiness, that grand air of command, in a lawyer'sor his thoughts the coeois that he pretended to be And it was shrewd of you to have made him yours Do you know that I shall be very proud of you yet, Cli Her father's oiliness offended her

Scaraentleman, an eccentric if you please, but a man born And she was to be his lady Her father must learn to treat her differently

She looked shyly--with a new shyness--at her lover when he ca She observed for the first tie of the head, with the chin thrust forward, that was a trick of his, and she noticed hat a grace he -- hied a quip with Harlequin in the usual manner as with an equal, and it offended her stillwhat he no, should use hi familiarity

CHAPTER IX THE AWAKENING

”Do you know,” said Cli for the explanation which I think you owestill at the table to which Andre-Louis had co hi the Binet Troupe--he had acquired the habit of sone, some to take the air and others, like Binet and Madame, because they felt that it were discreet to leave those two to the explanations thatthat Andre-Louis did not share He kindled a light and leisurely applied it to his pipe A frown came to settle on his brow

”Explanation?” he questioned presently, and looked at her ”But on what score?”

”On the score of the deception you have practised on us--on me”

”I have practised none,” he assured her

”You mean that you have simply kept your own counsel, and that in silence there is no deception But it is deceitful to withhold facts concerning yourself and your true station from your future wife You should not have pretended to be a simple country lawyer, which, of course, any one could see that you are not It may have been very romantic, but Enfin, will you explain?”

”I see,” he said, and pulled at his pipe ”But you are wrong, Clis about me that I have not told you, it is that I did not account them of much i to be other than I am I am neither more nor less than I have represented an to annoy her, and the annoyance showed on her winsome face, coloured her voice

”Ha! And that fine lady of the nobility hom you are so intimate, who carried you off in her cabriolet with so little ceremony towards myself? What is she to you?”

”A sort of sister,” said he