“You could not blame me, if I were,” Desmond said, with a smile, “considering the cock-and-bull stories that you are constantly trying to palm off on me.  However, you are wrong now.  I will tell you the affair, just as it happened.”

And he related, in detail, the story of the rescue of Mademoiselle Pointdexter, and the manner in which he had conveyed her to Versailles.

“By Saint Bridget, Kennedy, we were not far wrong when we called you a knight errant.  Well, this is something like an adventure, though whether it will end well or ill for you I cannot say.  Did you learn the name of the person who had the girl carried off?”

“No.  I asked no questions, and indeed had but little conversation with her; for, as I have told you, I put her in a carriage, with the old hag who was in charge of her, and rode myself by the side of it, in case the old woman should try to escape.”

“A truly discreet proceeding, Kennedy,” O’Neil laughed.  “I think, if I myself had been in your place, I should have taken a seat inside also, where you, of course, could at once have watched the old woman, and talked with the young one.”

“I don’t think that you would have done anything of the sort, O’Neil,” Desmond said gravely, “but would have seen, as I did, that it was better that she should travel alone, with the old woman, till she reached her father’s house.  Scandal will be busy enough with her name, in any case, and it is as well that it should not be said that she arrived home, in a carriage, with a young officer of O’Brien’s Irish regiment.”

“By my faith, Kennedy, it seems to me that you are a Saint Anthony and a Bayard rolled into one.  But, seriously, you are undoubtedly right.  Well, it all depends upon who was the man who carried her off, as to whether you were fortunate or unfortunate in thus having thwarted his designs.  If he is some adventurer, your action will gain you heaps of credit.  If, on the other hand, it was one of the king’s favourites, seeking to mend his fortunes by marrying, it is probable that you will have made a dangerous enemy—­nay, more, have drawn upon yourself the king’s displeasure.  I should think it likely that, before attempting so desperate an action as the carrying off of the Baron Pointdexter’s daughter, such a man would have assured himself that the king would not view the enterprise with displeasure.

“We may assume that he would not inform His Majesty of any particulars, but would put it, hypothetically, that as he was getting into sore straits, he thought of mending his fortunes by carrying off an heiress—­not, of course, one of those of whose hands the king had the disposal; and that he trusted that, if he succeeded, His Majesty would not view the matter as a grave offence.  From what I know of Louis, he would reply gravely:  ’I should be obliged (duke or viscount, as the case might be) to express very grave displeasure, and to order you to leave the court for a time; but, as the harm would be done, and the young lady married to you, it might be that, in time, I should pardon the offence.’