He raised his head haughtily, and for the
first time noticed that Madame du Gua was speaking to him.
"Your mind is no doubt at Fougeres," she remarked bitterly, seeing how
useless her efforts to attract his attention had been. "Ah, monsieur,
I would give my life to put /her/ within your power, and see you happy
with her."
"Then why have you done all you could to kill her?"
"Because I wish her dead or in your arms. Yes, I may have loved the
Marquis de Montauran when I thought him a hero, but now I feel only a
pitying friendship for him; I see him shorn of all his glory by a
fickle love for a worthless woman."
"As for love," said the marquis, in a sarcastic tone, "you judge me
wrong. If I loved that girl, madame, I might desire her less; if it
were not for you, perhaps I should not think of her at all."
"Here she is!" exclaimed Madame du Gua, abruptly.
The haste with which the marquis looked round went to the heart of the
woman; but the clear light of the wax candles enabled her to see every
change on the face of the man she loved so violently, and when he
turned back his face, smiling at her woman's trick, she fancied there
was still some hope of recovering him.
"What are you laughing at?" asked the Comte de Bauvan.
"At a soap-bubble which has burst," interposed Madame du Gua, gaily.
"The marquis, if we are now to believe him, is astonished that his
heart ever beat the faster for that girl who presumes to call herself
Mademoiselle de Verneuil.
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