"Did you see a priest with her ?" he asked slowly.

"A man called the Coadjutor--a down-looking dog ?" I said--with a shiver of dread, a sudden revulsion of feeling, born of his manner--that I had.

And I explained the part the priest had taken.
"Then," Pavannes rejoined, "I am right There IS a trap laid for me.
The Abbess of the Ursulines! She abduct my wife?
Why, she is her dearest friend, believe me.

It is impossible.

She would be more likely to save her from danger than to--umph! wait a minute." I did: I waited, dreading what he might discover, until he muttered, checking himself--"Can that be it?
Can it be that the Abbess did know of some danger threatening us, and would have put Madeleine in a safe retreat?
I wonder!" And I wondered; and then--well, thoughts are like gunpowder.