Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 3).djvu/22

 He took no notice; he was in no mood to think of trifles.

'You, so brave, can you care for a coward?' he said abruptly. 'I thought like went to like. Your boar of the forests does not mate with the shrinking doe.'

'He is not a coward. It is you who are unjust. He is guiltless, and he is hunted. Even the boar flies from the dogs.'

'He little deserves your faithfulness. Why will you not leave him?'

'I would not leave a fox that had trusted me in such a strait.'

'It was not you who brought it on him, and were he a man, indeed, he would walk straight up to the gates of a guard-house rather than he would bring on you the peril, the secrecy, and the shamefulness he does bring'

'Those are only words. You said all that yesterday. I will go now. I only came to give you his answer.'

He did not ask her whether she had given his message truthfully. Este might and did doubt her often; he never did so. He understood her nature as Este never could do, though he should live beside her till age came to them both.