What if
you do not return?"
"You mistrust me?" I exclaimed, my hopes melting.
"You misapprehend me. I mean, what if you are killed?"
"I do not think that I shall be."
"Ah! But what if you are? What shall I say to my Lord Cardinal?"
"Dame! That I am dead, and that he is saved the trouble of hanging me.
The most he can want of me is my life. Let us suppose that you had come an
hour later. You would have been forced to wait until after the encounter,
and, did I fall, matters would be no different."
The young man fell to thinking, but I, knowing that it is not well to let
the young ponder overlong if you would bend them to your wishes, broke in
upon his reflections--"See, Montr?sor, yonder are the lights of Blois; by
eight o'clock we shall be in the town. Come; grant me leave to cross the
Loire, and by ten o'clock, or half-past at the latest, I shall return to
sup with you or I shall be dead. I swear it."
"Were I in your position," he answered musingly, "I know how I would be
treated, and, pardieu! come what may I shall deal with you accordingly.
You may go to your assignation, M.
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