service of Mademoiselle de La Vauvraye that you can blame me if I
refuse to go a single step further than my orders bid me?"

The Seneschal stared at him now in increasing dismay. Had his own
interests been less at issue he could have indulged his mirth at
the other's fiery indignation at the inconveniences he recited. As
it was, he had nothing to say; no thought or feeling other than what
concerned finding a way of escape from the net that seemed to be
closing in about him - how to seem to serve the Queen without turning
against the Dowager of Condillac; how to seem to serve the Dowager
without opposing the wishes of the Queen.

"A plague on the girl!" he growled, unconsciously uttering his
thoughts aloud. "The devil take her!"

Garnache smiled grimly. "That is a bond of sympathy between us,"
said he. "I have said those very words a hundred times - a thousand
times, indeed - between Paris and Grenoble. Yet I scarcely see that
you can damn her with as much justice as can I.

"But there, monsieur; all this is unprofitable. You have my message.
I shall spend the day at Grenoble, and take a well-earned rest. By
this time to-morrow I shall be ready to start upon my return journey.
I shall have then the honour to wait upon you again, to the end that
I may receive from you the charge of Mademoiselle de La Vauvraye. I
shall count upon your having her here, in readiness to set out with
me, by noon to-morrow."

He bowed, with a flourish of his plumed hat, and would with that have
taken his departure but that the Seneschal stayed him.