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Rh De Proballe had been fretting at this interlude in which he was not taking the important part he desired.

"You need a curb to your tongue, Gerard," he said.

"Does M. de Proballe desire an opportunity of applying it?"

"What a fire-eater it is!" cried de Proballe, hiding his vexation under a laugh, "and what a wit! Where did you learn to be so free with your tongue?"

"Not in Morvaix of a truth, where every one must order his speech to suit the ears of his Governor, it seems."

"Gerard!" whispered Gabrielle, with growing alarm at his reckless answers.

"Yet there are things in Morvaix that we can teach persons of even your high character!" exclaimed the Governor sharply.

"I have already learnt many, my lord," was the dry retort.

"One you will learn. Thou shalt do no murder," added de Proballe.

"That is certainly a branch of knowledge with many expert professors here," returned Gerard, with the same reckless air.

His manner was intentionally assumed. He had not failed to discern from de Proballe's manner that some development was at hand, which boded danger; and he chose deliberately the attitude of reckless defiance of all authority. Intrepid by nature, he had often seen danger met and difficulties overcome by boldness, when no other means could have succeeded.

His bearing toward the Governor, despot though he was in Morvaix, was carefully calculated. As a Bourbon and the son of the Suzerain Duke, with full authority to act in his father's place, this Governor owed him allegiance, and he believed he had but to reveal his true character to bring the bully to his knees.