Page:Francesca Carrara 3.pdf/261

258 accurately. The moment they were alone, she exclaimed—

"You have seen Mr. Evelyn?"

"To-night!" replied her companion, in a faltering voice, as if afraid to trust the very air with her treasured secret.

"You look very pretty on the strength of it. I only wish a lover improved my complexion as it does yours. But I don't take these matters much to heart now. And so, in the true spirit of a knight-errant, our hero has run into all sorts of dangers and difficulties, as if on purpose to shew his lady what a very imprudent choice she has made! Well, I intend enacting la fée lumineuse or bienfaisante who is to extricate you. Just dramatise the situation—take Charles by surprise; and my diamonds against your destiny, that our fairy tale ends with a benevolent monarch, a marriage, and a—'they lived very happy for the rest of their lives.'"