THE UNSPEAKABLE GENTLEMAN
She paused again, watching me in vague embarrassment.
"He said he'd be damned if he would, Monsieur. He said he would do what the Marquis had directed, if he had to swing for it. That he would take the paper and me to America—that I . . . Mon Dieu! Do you not know what he said! Can you not guess? . . . He said that I was to marry his son."
A smile suddenly played about her lips.
"And I told him," she continued breathlessly, "I told him I'd be damned if I would, Monsieur. That neither he nor the Marquis would make me marry a man I did not know, much less a son of his!"
"And when you asked him to recall it—Mademoiselle, when you asked him to recall it, did you mean—tell me, Mademoiselle!"
"Ah," she whispered, "but it is too soon, and you are too rough, Monsieur! I beg of you—be careful! Besides—someone is coming."
And then I heard a soft footstep behind me.
"Huh!" said Brutus, "I go tell the captain. No. It is all right. I tell the captain He is happy. It will please him. Huh!"
[264]
