“You have promised him that I shall live?”

“Yes.”

“But, sir, you spoke of vigilance and protection. Are you a doctor?”

“Yes; the best you could have at the present time, believe me.”

“But you say you have watched?” said Valentine uneasily; “where have you been?⁠—I have not seen you.”

The count extended his hand towards the library.

“I was hidden behind that door,” he said, “which leads into the next house, which I have rented.”

Valentine turned her eyes away, and, with an indignant expression of pride and modest fear, exclaimed:

“Sir, I think you have been guilty of an unparalleled intrusion, and that what you call protection is more like an insult.”