"Are you sure there is no mistake?" she inquired after a pause. "Is all this really true, Monsieur?"
"It is, indeed."
"But how comes it that my father has seen naught of what has been so plain to me--that M. de Mancini was ever at my sister's side?"
"Your father, Mademoiselle, is much engrossed in his vineyard. Moreover, when the Chevalier has been at hand he has been careful to show no greater regard for the one than for the other of you. I instructed him in this duplicity many weeks ago."
She looked at me for a moment.
"Oh, Monsieur," she cried passionately, "how deep is my humiliation! To think that I was made a part of so vile a bargain! Oh, I am glad that M. de Mancini has proved above the sordid task to which they set him--glad that he will dupe the Cardinal and my father."
"So am not I, Mademoiselle," I exclaimed. She vouchsafed me a stare of ineffable surprise.
"How?
"Diable!" I answered. "I am M. de Mancini's friend. It was to shield him that I fought your brother; again, because of my attitude towards him was it that I went perilously near assassination at Reaux. Enemies sprang up about him when the Cardinal's matrimonial projects became known. Your brother picked a quarrel with him, and when I had dealt with your brother, St. Auban appeared, and after St. Auban there were others. When it is known that he has played this trick upon 'Uncle Giulio' his enemies will disappear; but, on the other hand, his prospects will all be blighted, and for that I am sorry."
"So that was the motive of your duel with Eugène!"
"At last you learn it."
"And," she added in a curious voice, "you would have been better pleased had M. de Mancini carried out his uncle's wishes?"
"It matters little what I would think, Mademoiselle," I answered guardedly, for I could not read that curious tone of hers.
"Nevertheless, I am curious to hear your answer."
What answer could I make? The truth--that for all my fine talk, I was at heart and in a sense right glad that she was not to become Andrea's wife--would have seemed ungallant. Moreover, I must have added the explanation that I desired to see her no man's wife, so that I might not seem to contradict myself. Therefore-"In truth, Mademoiselle," I answered, lying glibly, "it would have given me more pleasure had Andrea chosen to obey his Eminence."
Her manner froze upon the instant.
"In the consideration of your friend's advancement," she replied, half contemptuously, "you forget, M. de Luynes, to consider me. Am I, then, a thing to be bartered into the hands of the first fortune-hunter who woos me because he has been bidden so to do, and who is to marry me for political purposes? Pshaw, M. de Luynes!" she added, with a scornful laugh, "after all, I was a fool to expect aught else from--"