gy, she left me.

Half dazed by the emotions that had made sport of me, I leaned over the
balustrade, and with my elbows on the stone and my chin on my palms,
I stared stupidly before me, thanking God for having sent Genevieve in
time to save me from again earning Mademoiselle's scorn. For as I grew
sober I did not doubt that with scorn she would have met the wild words
that already trembled on my lips.

I laughed harshly and aloud, such a laugh as those in Hell may vent.
"Gaston, Gaston!" I muttered, "at thirty-two you are more a fool than
ever you were at twenty."

I told myself then that my fancy had vested her tone and look with a
kindliness far beyond that which they contained, and as I thought of
how I had deemed impatient the little gesture wherewith she had greeted
Genevieve's interruption I laughed again.

From the reverie into which, naturally enough, I lapsed, it was
Mademoiselle who aroused me. She stood beside me with an unrest of
manner so unusual in her, that straightway I guessed the substance of
her talk with Genevieve.

"So, Mademoiselle," I said, without waiting for her to speak, "you have
learned what is afoot?"

"I have," she answered. "That they love each other is no news to me.
That they intend to wed does not surprise me. But that they should
contemplate a secret marriage passes my comprehension."

I cleared my throat as men will when about to embark upon a perilous
subject with no starting-point determined.

"It is time, Mademoiselle," I began, "that you should learn the true
cause of M. de Mancini's presence at Canaples. It will enlighten you
touching his motives for a secret wedding. Had things fallen out as was
intended by those who planned his visit--Monsieur your father and my
Lord Cardinal--it is improbable that you would ever have heard that
which it now becomes necessary that I should tell you. I trust,
Mademoiselle," I continued, "that you will hear me in a neutral
spirit, without permitting your personal feelings to enter into your
consideration of that which I shall unfold."

"So long a preface augurs anything but well," she interposed, looking
monstrous serious.

"Not ill, at least, I hope. Hear me then. Your father and his Eminence
are friends; the one has a daughter who is said to be very wealthy and
whom he, with fond ambition, desires to see wedded to a man who can
give her an illustrious name; the other possesses a nephew whom he can
ennoble by the highest title tha