And with him to understand was to act. He might have had some
difficulty in persuading himself at leisure that he was seriously in
love with Beatrix, but being taken suddenly and unawares, he had not
the slightest doubt as to what he ought to do. Before she could answer
his last words, he had risen to his feet and was drawing her by the
hand.
"Come," he cried. "I can easily take you by the way I came. It is only
a step, and in five minutes you shall be as free as I am!"
But, to his great surprise, Beatrix seemed inclined to laugh at him.
"Where should we go?" she asked, refusing to leave her seat. "We should
be caught before we reached the city gates, and it would be the worse
for us."
"And who should dare touch us?" asked Gilbert, indignantly. "Who should
dare to lay a hand on you?"
"You are strong and brave," answered Beatrix, "but you are not an army,
and the Queen--but you will not believe what I say."
"If the Queen even cared to see my face, she could send for me. It is
three weeks since I caught a glimpse of her, five hundred yards away."
"She is angry with you," answered the young girl, "and she thinks that
you will wish to be with her, and will find some way of seeing her."
"But," argued Gilbert, "if she only meant to use your name in order to
bring me from Rome, it would have been quite enough to have written
that letter without having brought you at all."
"And how could she tell that I did not know where you were, or that I
could not send you a message which might contradict hers?"
"That is true," Gilbert admitted.
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