He was not taken aback. "An adventurer truly," he said. "It is a far
travel to France, and there is much to overcome!"
She could scarcely reconcile this acute, self-contained man with the
enthusiast and comedian she had seen in the Cure's garden.
"Monsieur Valmond," she said, "I neither suspect nor accuse; I only feel.
There is something terribly uncertain in this cause of yours, in your
claims. You have no right to waste lives."
"To waste lives?" he asked mechanically.
"Yes; the Government is to proceed against you."
"Ah, yes," he answered. "Monsieur De la Riviere has seen to that; but he
must pay for his interference."
"That is beside the point. If a force comes against you--what then?"
"Then I will act as becomes a Napoleon," he answered, rather grandly.
So there was a touch of the bombastic in his manner even yet! She
laughed a little ironically. Then all at once her thoughts reverted to
Elise, and some latent cruelty in her awoke. Though she believed the
girl, she would accuse the man, the more so, because she suddenly became
aware that his eyes were fixed on herself in ardent admiration.
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