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.
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