"
"I am more than persuaded. What other business could bring him to
Lavedan?"
It was a question that I did not attempt to answer. Haply he did
not expect me to answer it. He left me free to ponder another
issue of this same business of which my mind was become very full.
Chatellerault had not dealt fairly with me. Often, since I had
left Paris, had I marvelled that he came to be so rash as to risk
his fortune upon a matter that turned upon a woman's whim. That I
possessed undeniable advantages of person, of birth, and of wealth,
Chatellerault could not have disregarded. Yet these, and the
possibility that they might suffice to engage this lady's affections,
he appeared to have set at naught when he plunged into that rash
wager.
He must have realized that because he had failed was no reason to
presume that I must also fail. There was no consequence in such an
argument, and often, as I have said, had I marvelled during the past
days at the readiness with which Chatellerault had flung down the
gage. Now I held the explanation of it. He counted upon the Vicomte
de Lavedan to reason precisely as he was reasoning, and he was
confident that no opportunities would be afforded me of so much as
seeing this beautiful and cold Roxalanne.
It was a wily trap he had set me, worthy only of a trickster.
Fate, however, had taken a hand in the game, and the cards were
redealt since I had left Paris. The terms of the wager permitted
me to choose any line of action that I considered desirable; but
Destiny, it seemed, had chosen for me, and set me in a line that
should at least suffice to overcome the parental resistance - that
breastwork upon which Chatellerault had so confidently depended.
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