“On my silence and discretion you may rely absolutely.”

“And you can be here by nine?”

“By daybreak, if you please.”

“I won’t tax you to that extent.  Nine will do quite well.”

“Adieu, then, till nine.”

“Adieu, and thank you.”

With this I left him, somewhat relieved to find that I had escaped all cross-examination on the score of Madame Marignan.

“De Caylus!” I again repeated to myself, as I took my rapid way to the
Hotel Dieu.  “De Caylus! why, surely, it must have been that evening at
Madame de Courcelles’....”

And then I recollected that De Caylus was the name of that officer who was said to have ridden by night, and single-handed, through the heart of the enemy’s camp, somewhere in Algiers.

CHAPTER XVIII.

A MARRIAGE NOT “A LA MODE.”

The marriage took place in a little out-of-the-way Protestant chapel beyond the barriers, at about a quarter before ten o’clock the next morning.  Dalrymple and I were there first; and Madame de Courcelles, having, in order to avoid observation, come part of the distance in a cab and part on foot, arrived a few minutes later.  She was very pale, and looked almost like a religieuse, with her black veil tied closely under her chin, and a dark violet dress, which might have passed for mourning.  She gave her hand to Dalrymple without speaking; then knelt down at the communion-table, and so remained till we had all taken our places.  As for Dalrymple, he had even less color than she, but held his head up haughtily, and betrayed no sign of the conflict within.

It was a melancholy little chapel, dusty and neglected, full of black and white funereal tablets, and damp as a vault.  We shivered as we stood about the altar; the clergyman’s teeth chattered as he began the marriage service; and the echoes of our responses reverberated forlornly up among the gothic rafters overhead.  Even the sunbeams struggled sadly and palely down the upper windows, and the chill wind whistled in when the door was opened, bringing with it a moan of coming rain.

The ceremony over, the books signed in the vestry, and the clergyman, clerk, and pew-opener duly remunerated for their services, we prepared to be gone.  For a couple of moments, Dalrymple and his bride stood apart in the shadow of the porch.  I saw him take the hand on which he had just placed the ring, and look down upon it tenderly, wistfully—­I saw him bend lower, and lower, whispering what no other ears might hear—­saw their lips meet for one brief instant.  Then the lady’s veil was lowered; she turned hastily away; and Dalrymple was left standing in the doorway alone.

“By Heaven!” said he, grasping my hand as though he would crush it.  “This is hard to bear.”

I but returned the pressure of his hand; for I knew not with what words to comfort him.  Thus we lingered for some minutes in silence, till the clergyman, having put off his surplice, passed us with a bow and went out; and the pew-opener, after pretending to polish the door-handle with her apron, and otherwise waiting about with an air of fidgety politeness, dropped a civil curtsey, and begged to remind us that the chapel must now be closed.