And I am going to be!'
'What do you mean?' Mademoiselle asked, wearily interrupting
him. 'If you think that you can prejudice me against this
gentleman--'
'That is precisely what I am going to do! And a little more than
that!' he answered.
'You will be only wasting your breath!' she retorted.
'Wait! Wait, Mademoiselle---until you have heard,' he said.
'For I swear to you that if ever a black-hearted scoundrel, a
dastardly sneaking spy trod the earth, it is this fellow! And I
am going to expose him. Your own eyes and your own ears shall
persuade you. I am not particular, but I would not eat, I would
not drink, I would not sit down with him! I would rather be
beholden to the meanest trooper in my squadron than to him! Ay,
I would, so help me Heaven!'
And the Lieutenant, turning squarely on his heel, spat on the
ground.
CHAPTER XI
THE ARREST
It had come, and I saw no way of escape. The sergeant was
between us and I could not strike him. And I found no words. A
score of times I had thought with shrinking how I should reveal
my secret to Mademoiselle--what I should say, and how she would
take it; but in my mind it had been always a voluntary act, this
disclosure, it had been always I who unmasked myself and she who
listened--alone; and in this voluntariness and this privacy there
had been something which took from the shame of anticipation.
Pages:
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225