"Aye, she's dead."
"She may thank God," said I, and I heard him curse me softly. "Well, what's the message?" I continued.
I had touched him in the raw, for all the world knew he had broken his mother's heart and flaunted his mistresses in her house; and his airy manner was gone for the moment.
"The duke offers you more than I would," he growled. "A halter for you, sire, was my suggestion. But he offers you safe-conduct across the frontier and a million crowns."
"I prefer your offer, my lord, if I am bound to one."
"You refuse?"
"Of course."
"I told Michael you would;" and the villain, his temper restored, gave me the sunniest of smiles. "The fact is, between ourselves," he continued, "Michael doesn't understand a gentleman."
I began to laugh.
"And you?" I asked.
"I do," he said. "Well, well, the halter be it!"
