He drank it eagerly.
Cadet then filled and gulped down a large cupful himself, then gave
another to the Intendant, and poured another and another for himself
until, he said, he "began to feel warm and comfortable, and got the
damnable taste of grave-digging out of his mouth!"
The heavy draught which Cadet forced the Intendant to take relieved
him somewhat, but he groaned inwardly and would not speak. Cadet
respected his mood, only bidding him ride fast. They spurred their
horses, and rode swiftly, unobserved by any one, until they entered
the gates of the Palace of the Intendant.
The arrival of the Intendant or the Sieur Cadet at the Palace at any
untimely hour of the night excited no remark whatever, for it was
the rule, rather than the exception with them both.
Dame Tremblay was not surprised next morning to find the chamber
empty and the lady gone.
She shook her head sadly. "He is a wild gallant, is my master! No
wilder ever came to Lake Beauport when I was the Charming Josephine
and all the world ran after me. But I can keep a secret, and I
will! This secret I must keep at any rate, by the Intendant's
order, and I would rather die than be railed at by that fierce Sieur
Cadet! I will keep the Intendant's secret safe as my teeth, which
he praised so handsomely and so justly!"
The fact that Caroline never returned to the Chateau, and that the
search for her was so long and so vainly carried on by La Corne St.
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