bidden Ganymede follow me into the very salon.

She read the document to the very end, then her glance was raised
timidly again to mine, and from me it shifted to Ganymede, stiff
at his post by the door.

"This was the best that you could do, monsieur?" she asked at last.

"The very best, mademoiselle," I answered calmly. "I do not wish
to magnify my service, but it was that or the scaffold. Madame your
mother had, unfortunately, seen the King before me, and she had
prejudiced your father's case by admitting him to be a traitor.
There was a moment when in view of that I was almost led to despair.
I am glad, however, mademoiselle, that I was so fortunate as to
persuade the King to just so much clemency."

"And for five years, then, I shall not see my parents." She sighed,
and her distress was very touching.

"That need not be. Though they may not come to France, it still
remains possible for you to visit them in Spain."

"True," she mused; "that will be something - will it not?"

"Assuredly something; under the circumstances, much."

She sighed again, and for a moment there was silence.

"Will you not sit, monsieur?" said she at last. She was very quiet
to-day, this little maid - very quiet and very wondrously subdued.