Now, at the foot of the hill I stopped, and letting Mademoiselle
pass on, detained M. de Cocheforet by a gesture.
'Pardon me, one moment,' I said. 'I want to ask a favour.'
He looked at me somewhat fretfully; with a gleam of wildness in
his eyes that betrayed how the iron was, little by little, eating
into his heart. He had started after breakfast as gaily as a
bridegroom, but gradually he had sunk below himself; and now he
had much ado to curb his impatience.
'Of me?' he said bitterly. 'What is it?'
'I wish to have a few words with Mademoiselle--alone,' I said.
'Alone?' he exclaimed in astonishment,
'Yes,' I replied, without blenching, though his face grew dark.
'For the matter of that, you can be within call all the time, if
you please. But I have a reason for wishing to ride a little way
with her.'
'To tell her something?'
'Yes.'
'Then you can tell it to me,' he retorted suspiciously.
'Mademoiselle, I will answer for it, has no desire to--'
'See me or speak to me? No,' I said. 'I can understand that.
Yet I want to speak to her.'
'Very well, you can speak in my presence,' he answered rudely.
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