She had read him as he might read himself, had revealed him with the certain truth, as none other had done in all his days.

He was silent for a long moment, then raised his hand in protest.
"You have a strange idea of what makes offence and shame.

I offered you marriage," he said complacently.

"And when I come to think upon it, after all that you have said, fair Huguenot, I see no cause for railing.
You call me this and that; to you I am a liar, a rogue, a cut-throat, what you will; and yet, and yet, I will have my way--I will have my way in the end." "You offered me marriage--and meant it not.

Do I not know?
Did you rely so little on your compelling powers, my lord, that you must needs resort to that bait?
Do you think that you will have your way to-morrow if you have failed to-day ?" With a quick change of tone and a cold, scornful laugh he rejoined: "Do you intend to measure swords with me ?" "No, no, my lord," she answered quietly; "what should one poor unfriended girl do in contest with the Earl of Leicester?
But yet, in very truth, I have friends, and in my hour of greatest need I shall go seeking." She was thinking of the Queen.