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She, too, was curious concerning mademoiselle and her past, but with a very different curiosity from Virginia's, and she determined to learn the story of the Dalahaides and their château above the Valley of the Shadow.
"Roger, you know this is different. I want you and no one to else tell me. Still, if you won't " "Oh, if you insist you must be gratified, I suppose, up to certain limits. What do you want to know?" "Everything." "H'm! Rather too large an order, my child. However, to begin with, the Dalahaides of the Château de la Roche were English in the last generation, but the family is of French origin.
Lady Gardiner was sure, since he admitted having known the Dalahaides, that, being human, Roger would have liked to hear something of the girl who lived there like Mariana in the Moated Grange; and it would have been interesting to know why he refrained from mentioning her.
You remember the crime committed by this fellow for of course you know that, before he was Convict 1280, he was Maxime Dalahaide?" "I know that. I know he is a murderer. But it is eight years, you must recollect, since I was in France, long before the thing happened. I took no particular interest in the crime, as I had never met the Dalahaides. He killed a woman: so much I recall.
Since then I have not heard her say one word of the Dalahaides, except incidentally about the château, which she actually means to buy, and have restored in time to come to it, if she likes, next year. Now, I don't see why her interest in the Dalahaides, if she continues to feel it, should interfere with her friendship for you." Loria did not answer.
They rode along the grass-grown avenue which wound up the hill among the cypresses and olive trees, coming out at last, as they neared the château, from shadow into a pale, chastened sunshine which among the gray-green trees had somewhat the effect of moonlight. "Have you ever heard of the Dalahaides?" Virginia demanded of her chaperon. "If I have, I've forgotten," said Lady Gardiner.
He consulted maps, and saw that the most likely place for the Bella Cuba to proceed on leaving New Caledonia was Samoa. It seemed to him that she must go there, in any case. Loria did not wish to appear as an active enemy of Maxime Dalahaide's. It was largely owing to his efforts on the prisoner's behalf that Max had been saved from the guillotine, and all the Dalahaides must have known that.
Besides, I had wanted to know, and I couldn't think of any one it would be convenient to ask, except Sir Roger or you." "I wish he had told her all! If he had, she would never have wished to hear of the Dalahaides again." "You speak bitterly of your old friends." "I? No, you misunderstand. I mean only that a girl a stranger would be horrified if she could know the full details.
"Rather strangely, madame has chosen another heirloom disposed of by the same family," returned the man, as he placed the old blue-enameled watch in a box filled with pink cotton. It seemed as if Fate persisted in linking them with these Dalahaides! Loria did not speak, but Kate's observant eyes saw that the gloved hand nearest her closed tightly on the stick it held.
Fortunate for her, perhaps, that she is the last of the French Dalahaides, and has the right to sell the château." "You will tell me nothing more?" "Nothing." "Then I will tell you one thing. I believe that the man was innocent. I have seen his portrait. I have seen his sister. That is enough for me.
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