A MASTER STROKE
I have a way with me which commonly commands respect; and when the landlord's first terror was over and he would serve me, I managed to get my supper--the first good meal I had had in two days--pretty comfortably in spite of the soldiers' presence. The crowd, too, which filled the room, soon began to melt. The men strayed off in groups to water their horses, or went to hunt up their quarters, until only two or three were left. Dusk had fallen outside; the noise in the street grew less. The firelight began to glow and flicker on the walls, and the wretched room to look as homely as it was in its nature to look. I was pondering for the twentieth time what step I should take next, and questioning why the soldiers were here, and whether I should let the night pass before I moved, when the door, which had been turning on its hinges almost without pause for an hour, opened again, and a woman came in.
She paused a moment on the threshold looking round, and I saw that she had a shawl on her head and a milk-pitcher in her hand, and that her feet and ankles were bare. There was a great rent in her coarse stuff petticoat, and the hand which held the shawl together was brown and dirty. More I did not see: for, supposing her to be a neighbour stolen in, now that the house was quiet, to get some milk for her child or the like, I took no farther heed of her. I turned to the fire again and plunged into my thoughts.
But to get to the hearth where the goodwife was fidgeting the woman had to pass in front of me; and as she passed I suppose that she stole a look at me from under her shawl. For just when she came between me and the blaze she uttered a low cry and shrank aside--so quickly that she almost stepped on the hearth.
The next moment she turned her back to me, and was stooping whispering in the housewife's ear. A stranger might have thought that she had trodden on a hot ember.
But another idea, and a very strange one, came into my mind; and I stood up silently. The woman's back was towards me, but something in her height, her shape, the pose of her head hidden as it was by her shawl, seemed familiar. I waited while she hung over the fire whispering, and while the goodwife slowly filled her pitcher out of the great black pot. But when she turned to go, I took a step forward so as to bar her way. And our eyes met.
I could not see her features; they were lost in the shadow of the hood. But I saw a shiver run through her from head to foot. And I knew then that I had made no mistake.
'That is too heavy for you, my girl,' I said familiarly, as I might have spoken to a village wench. 'I will carry it for you.'
One of the men, who remained lolling at the table, laughed, and the other began to sing a low song. The woman trembled in rage or fear; but she kept silence and let me take the jug from her hands; and when I went to the door and opened it, she followed mechanically. An instant, and the door fell to behind us, shutting off the light and glow, and we two stood together in the growing dusk.
'It is late for you to be out, Mademoiselle,' I said politely.
'You might meet with some rudeness, dressed as you are. Permit me to see you home.'
She shuddered, and I thought that I heard her sob, but she did not answer. Instead, she turned and walked quickly through the village in the direction of the Chateau, keeping in the shadow of the houses. I carried the pitcher and walked close to her, beside her; and in the dark I smiled. I knew how shame and impotent rage were working in her. This was something like revenge!
Presently I spoke.
'Well, Mademoiselle,' I said, 'where are your grooms?'
She gave me one look, her eyes blazing with anger, her face like hate itself; and after that I said no more, but left her in peace, and contented myself with walking at her shoulder until we came to the end of the village, where the track to the great house plunged into the wood. There she stopped, and turned on me like a wild creature at bay.
'What do you want?' she cried hoarsely, breathing as if she had been running.
'To see you safe to the house,' I answered coolly. 'Alone you might be insulted.'
'And if I will not?' she retorted.
'The choice does not lie with you, Mademoiselle,' I answered sternly, 'You will go to the house with me, and on the way you will give me an interview--late as it is; but not here. Here we are not private enough. We may be interrupted at any moment, and I wish to speak to you at length.'
'At length?' she muttered.
'Yes, Mademoiselle.'
I saw her shiver. 'What if I will not?" she said again.
'I might call to the nearest soldiers and tell them who you are,'
