Louis. They apologized to
me for finding nothing. What did they expect to find, think you?"
"The lady, to be sure! Oh, Bigot," continued she, tapping him with
her fan, "if they would send a commission of women to search for
her, the secret could not remain hid."
"No, truly, Angelique! If you were on such a commission to search
for the secret of her."
"Well, Bigot, I would never betray it, if I knew it," answered she,
promptly.
"You swear to that, Angelique?" asked he, looking full in her eyes,
which did not flinch under his gaze.
"Yes; on my book of hours, as you did!" said she.
"Well, there is my hand upon it, Angelique. I have no secret to
tell respecting her. She has gone, I cannot tell WHITHER."
Angelique gave him her hand on the lie. She knew he was playing
with her, as she with him, a game of mutual deception, which both
knew to be such. And yet they must, circumstanced as they were,
play it out to the end, which end, she hoped, would be her marriage
with this arch-deceiver. A breach of their alliance was as
dangerous as it would be unprofitable to both.
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