ve. But, on the other hand, she might not
accept it; she might deem my confession a shrewd part of my scheme, and
the dread of that kept me silent day by day.

Fully did I see how with every hour that sped confession became more
and more difficult. The sooner the thing were done, the greater the
likelihood of my being believed; the later I left it, the more probable
was it that I should be discredited. Alas! Bardelys, it seemed, had
added cowardice to his other short-comings.

As for the coldness of Roxalanne, that was a pretty fable of
Chatellerault's; or else no more than an assumption, an invention of
the imaginative La Fosse. Far, indeed, from it, I found no arrogance
or coldness in her. All unversed in the artifices of her sex, all
unacquainted with the wiles of coquetry, she was the very incarnation
of naturalness and maidenly simplicity. To the tales that--with many
expurgations--I told her of Court life, to the pictures that I drew
of Paris, the Luxembourg, the Louvre, the Palais Cardinal, and the
courtiers that thronged those historic palaces, she listened avidly and
enthralled; and much as Othello won the heart of Desdemona by a recital
of the perils he had endured, so it seemed to me was I winning the heart
of Roxalanne by telling her of the things that I had seen.

Once or twice she expressed wonder at the depth and intimacy of the
knowledge of such matters exhibited by a simple Gascon gentleman,
whereupon I would urge, in explanation, the appointment in the Guards
that Lesperon had held some few years ago, a position that will reveal
much to an observant man.

The Vicomte noted our growing intimacy, yet set no restraint upon it.
Down in his heart I believe that noble gentleman would have been
well pleased had matters gone to extremes between us, for however
impoverished he might deem me; Lesperon's estates in Gascony being, as
I have said, likely to suffer sequestration in view of his treason--he
remembered the causes of this and the deep devotion of the man I
impersonated to the affairs of Gaston d'Orleans.

Again, he feared the very obvious courtship of the Chevalier de
Saint-Eustache, and he would have welcomed a turn of events that would
effectually have frustrated it. That he did not himself interfere so
far as the Chevalier's wooing was concerned, I could but set down to the
mistrust of Saint-Eustache--amounting almost to fear--of which he had
spoken.

As for the Vicomtesse, the same causes tha