“General Carruthers,” then said my beloved Gouverneur Faulkner as he drew his beautiful body to all the height that was possible to him, and looked into the eyes of my beloved Uncle Robert with his own, which are stars of the dawn, so that all of his heart and soul and honor shone therefrom in a radiance, “the Marquise of Grez and Bye went a three days’ journey into the wilds of the Harpeth mountains with me to rescue my honor and for the welfare of this great State and of France.  And because we thought not of ourselves but of the welfare of Harpeth and of France, and did but what was necessary as two comrades, God has revealed to us his gift of gifts—­love.  As you see, she is returned to you radiant and unharmed.  Have I your consent to try to win her hand in marriage?”

For no more than a long minute my Uncle, the General Robert, gazed straight into the eyes of my beloved Gouverneur Faulkner, and then a very beautiful smile did break from under those white swords crossed above his lips, as he spoke with a great urgency: 

“Would you like to take the baggage along with you to-night, Governor?  Don’t leave her here.  I don’t want a woman about my house.  I can wake up the county court clerk for a license,” he said with a fine twinkling of the eye.

“Oh, but all friends must forgive me my deception; and then must not a courtship of great decorum be made from my Gouverneur Faulkner for the hand of the lady whom he would make his wife?” I asked with an uncertainty as I looked from my Uncle, the General Robert, to my Gouverneur Faulkner.

“I’m sorry, sir, but I think the Marquise is right and under the circumstances I’ll have to make a very public courtship, which out of consideration for you I’ll make as ardent and rapid as possible.  Only we three know the wonderful truth and we’ll keep it to ourselves.”  And as he spoke that great Gouverneur Faulkner bent and laid a kiss of great ceremony upon the hand of Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye.

“Very well, sir, I’ll keep her for a few days and have her fitted out in a lot of folderols for you, but only for a short period, mind you.  A very short period!” answered my Uncle, the General Robert, with a smile that showed much delight in me.  I flew to him and gave to him an embrace with my arms and also laid my cheek against his.

“I am for always your most humble and obedient girl, my Uncle Robert,” I whispered to him.

“Humble and obedient—­no woman would know those words if she met them in her own drawing-room,” he answered to me with a great scorn but he also gave to me a shake that was of a seeming great fierceness, but that I knew to be a caress.

And into that caress came also another interruption of great hurry.  My Buzz entered the door with a rapidity and this exclamation: 

“What’s the trouble, General?  I just got your phone and—­” Then he too stood in a great and sudden stillness, regarding me as I stood from the shelter of the arms of my Uncle, the General Robert, and looked into his eyes of great fright.