"Upon what happens then," he as drily as regretfully added, "I shall have
no power."
But to the quick searching prayer, the proud eloquence of the woman, the
governor, bound though he was to secresy, could not be adamant.
"There is but one thing I can do for you," he said at last. "You know
Father Dollier de Casson?"
To her assent, he added: "Then go to him. Ask no questions. If anything
can be done, he may do it for you; that he will I do not know."
She could not solve the riddle, but she must work it out. There was the
one great fact: her husband had escaped.
"You will do all you can do, your excellency?" she said.
"Indeed, madame, I have done all I can," he said. With impulse she
caught his hand and kissed it. A minute afterwards she was gone with
Maurice Joval, who had orders to bring her to the abbe's house--that,
and no more.
The governor, left alone, looked at the hand that she had kissed and
said: "Well, well, I am but a fool still. Yet--a woman in a million!"
He took out his watch. "Too late," he added. "Poor lady!"
A few minutes afterwards Jessica met the abbe on his own doorstep.
Maurice Joval disappeared, and the priest and the woman were alone
together.
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