He had his own view. "Do you
not think it possible, Anne?" he suggested timidly--we were of
course alone at the time--"that he thinks to make Louis resign
Mademoiselle?"
"Resign her!" I exclaimed obtusely. "How?"
"By giving him a choice--you understand?"
I did understand I saw it in a moment. I had been dull not to
see it before. Bezers might put it in this way: let M. de
Pavannes resign his mistress and live, or die and lose her.
"I see," I answered. "But Louis would not give her up. Not to
him!"
"He would lose her either way," Croisette answered in a low tone.
"That is not however the worst of it. Louis is in his power.
Suppose he thinks to make Kit the arbiter, Anne, and puts Louis
up to ransom, setting Kit for the price? And gives her the
option of accepting himself, and saving Louis' life; or refusing,
and leaving Louis to die?"
"St. Croix!" I exclaimed fiercely. "He would not be so base!"
And yet was not even this better than the blind vengeance I had
myself attributed to him?
"Perhaps not," Croisette answered, while he gazed onwards through
the twilight.
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