Gabord, looking not at us at all, went straight to the window,
and, standing on a stool, busied himself with the stanchions and
to whistle. I took Alixe's hands and held them, and spoke her name
softly, and she smiled up at me with so perfect a grace that I
thought there never was aught like it in the world.
She was the first to break the good spell. I placed a seat for
her, and sat down by her. She held out her fingers to the fire, and
then, after a moment, she told me the story of last night's affair.
First she made me tell her briefly of the events of the morning, of
which she knew, but not fully. This done, she began. I will set
down her story as a whole, and you must understand as you read that
it was told as women tell a story, with all little graces and
diversions, and those small details with which even momentous
things are enveloped in their eyes. I loved her all the more
because of these, and I saw, as Doltaire had said, how admirably
poised was her intellect, how acute her wit, how delicate and
astute a diplomatist she was becoming; and yet, through all,
preserving a simplicity of character almost impossible of belief.
Such qualities, in her directed to good ends, in lesser women have
made them infamous. Once that day Alixe said to me, breaking off as
her story went on, "Oh, Robert, when I see what power I have to
dissimulate--for it is that, call it by what name you will--when I
see how I enjoy accomplishing against all difficulty, how I can
blind even so skilled a diplomatist as Monsieur Doltaire, I almost
tremble.
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