Then he stood still a moment, his eyes on the window, his chin in his hand, brooding.
His pride and his desire to know more of that courier's message were fighting it out again in his mind, just as they fought it out in the courtyard below.

Suddenly his glance fell on her, standing there, so sweet, so frail, and so disconsolate.

For her sake he must do the thing, repulsive though it might be.
"I must know more," he exclaimed.

"I must learn Florimond's whereabouts, if only that we may go to meet him when we leave Condillac to-night." "You have arranged definitely for that ?" she asked, her face lighting.
"All is in readiness," he assured her.

Then, lowering his voice without apparent reason, and speaking quickly and intently, "I must go find out what I can," he said.