man is a liar, even if but a boastful liar and liars are never long out
of mischief."

The wisdom of the words was unquestionable, but the advice in them was
not easily followed, particularly by one whose position was so peculiar
as my own. In a way I had little cause to fear the harm the Chevalier
might do me, but I was impelled to consider the harm that at the same
time he might do the Vicomte.

Despite our growing enmity, the Chevalier and I were very frequently
thrown together. The reason for this was, of course, that wherever
Roxalanne was to be found there, generally, were we both to be found
also. Yet had I advantages that must have gone to swell a rancour based
as much upon jealousy as any other sentiment, for whilst he was but a
daily visitor at Lavedan, I was established there indefinitely.

Of the use that I made of that time I find it difficult to speak. From
the first moment that I had beheld Roxalanne I had realized the truth of
Chatellerault's assertion that I had never known a woman. He was right.
Those that I had met and by whom I had judged the sex had, by contrast
with this child, little claim to the title. Virtue I had accounted a
shadow without substance; innocence, a synonym for ignorance; love, a
fable, a fairy tale for the delectation of overgrown children.

In the company of Roxalanne de Lavedan all those old, cynical beliefs,
built up upon a youth of undesirable experiences, were shattered and
the error of them exposed. Swiftly was I becoming a convert to the faith
which so long I had sneered at, and as lovesick as any unfledged youth
in his first amour.

Damn! It was something for a man who had lived as I had lived to have
his pulses quicken and his colour change at a maid's approach; to find
himself colouring under her smile and paling under her disdain; to have
his mind running on rhymes, and his soul so enslaved that, if she is not
to be won, chagrin will dislodge it from his body.

Here was a fine mood for a man who had entered upon his business
by pledging himself to win and wed this girl in cold and supreme
indifference to her personality. And that pledge, how I cursed it during
those days at Lavedan! How I cursed Chatellerault, cunning, subtle
trickster that he was! How I cursed myself for my lack of chivalry and
honour in having been lured so easily into so damnable a business! For
when the memory of that wager rose before me it brought despair in its
train. Had I found Roxalan