"
"Lomaque, you speak positively of that belief of his--but you
cannot be certain of it."
"I can, on the most indisputable, the most startling evidence--on
the authority of Danville's own act. You have asked me to speak
out--"
"I ask you again--I insist on it! Your news, Lomaque--your news,
without another word of preface!"
"You shall have it without another word of preface. Danville is
on the point of being married."
As the answer was given they both stopped by the bank of the
stream, and again looked each other in the face. There was a
minute of dead silence between them. During that minute, the
water bubbling by happily over its bed of pebbles seemed
strangely loud, the singing of birds in a little wood by the
stream-side strangely near and shrill, in both their ears. The
light breeze, for all its midday warmth, touched their cheeks
coldly; and the spring sunlight pouring on their faces felt as if
it were glimmering on them through winter clouds.
"Let us walk on," said Trudaine, in a low voice. "I was prepared
for bad news, yet not for that. Are you certain of what you have
just told me?"
"As certain as that the stream here is flowing by our side. Hear
how I made the discovery, and you will doubt no longer. Before
last week I knew nothing of Danville, except that his arrest on
suspicion by Robespierre's order was, as events turned out, the
saving of his life.
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