"Mademoiselle," he said, gently raising her, "I do not like to have you kneeling to me, and I will not bargain with you in this fashion. For the present Felix must remain where he is, but this I promise, you shall have speech with me again before he is condemned."
"Thank you," she said. "Before he is condemned; you mean before——"
"There is no juggling in the words," Herrick answered. "Is it too much to ask you to trust me?"
"I trust the word of the Duke," she said.
"I will leave you, mademoiselle. I hear your escort assembling in the court-yard. You may find the Château of Passey a less dreary prison than you imagine."
A little later Christine and Lucille rode out of the great gates with Gaspard Lemasle and a large escort, and from a corner of the terrace Roger Herrick watched them go. His world had moved since the night he had seen her ride out upon the same journey when she went to bring the pale scholar of Passey to Vayenne.
[CHAPTER XXIX]
THE DUKE'S MESSENGER