ive nothing in
return. Anthony told me of all that took place in the Cloister of St.
Anthony. Your action seemed to him so fine, poor fellow!--but not to me.
You believed in your luck, of course, and took the hazard and won,
leaving him hopelessly at a disadvantage. I should not have accepted the
position as he did--I should have forced you to fight it out sooner or
later! I had rather a hundred times have died by your bullet than lived
to endure your triumph!'

Rallywood pondered this view of the matter before he spoke.

'I dare say you are right,' he said at last; 'at least, no woman could
have been so generous to another woman as he was to me.'

'You are complimentary, Captain Rallywood!'

'I beg your pardon. I only meant that women are not generous as between
themselves. Looked at from your point of view, I see that I was wrong
about that affair with Unziar. But more than all, it proves he is a
splendid fellow.'

Now Unziar's praise from Rallywood's lips displeased Mademoiselle
Selpdorf almost more than all which had gone before.

'It is easy to say these things, but'--she rose eagerly--'at last that
figure is ended. What a stupid interval it has been!' she added with a
little smile.

'I am sorry. I always have the misfortune to bore you,' Rallywood said,
accepting his snub meekly.

'Never mind! You can't help it!' she responded with a pleasant nod as
she left him.

Rallywood remained standing where he was.

'A very nasty one indeed for me. I shouldn't wonder, though, if she
forgave me for the sake of that last back-handed blow!' he reflected
with some amusement.

Which proves that Revonde was teaching Rallywood something that has its
own value at one period or another of a man's life. He was too poor to
dream of marrying anyone, much less the daughter of the Chancellor of
Maasau, a woman whose training and tastes had not been guided on the
lines of simplicity or economy. That Valerie Selpdorf attracted him was
a truth to which his eyes began to be opened at the moment when
Counsellor asked him why he haunted Madame de Sagan's entertainments.
Then it had struck him that the almost certain chance of meeting Valerie
was his chief motive, yet he believed it was safe to divulge to himself,
since the girl bitterly disliked him, and he, in the strength of the
insular and Puritan side of his nature, disapproved of her. It was the
pleasure of the hour, no one looked beyond that in Revonde, and
Rallywood had f