To all this, however, he made the reply that I
expected, concluding with the remark that for the present at least
it would seem as if the Chevalier de Saint-Eustache had been
satisfied with creating this trouble betwixt myself and Marsac.
From what Anatole had said, I had already concluded that Marsac had
exercised the greatest reticence. But the interview between his
sister and Roxalanne filled me with the gravest anxiety. Women are
not wont to practise the restraint of men under such circumstances,
and for all that Mademoiselle de Marsac may not have expressed it
in so many words that I was her faithless lover, yet women are
quick to detect and interpret the signs of disorders springing from
such causes, and I had every fear that Roxalanne was come to the
conclusion that I had lied to her yesternight. With an uneasy
spirit, then, I went in quest of her, and I found her walking in
the old rose garden behind the chateau.
She did not at first remark my approach, and I had leisure for some
moments to observe her and to note the sadness that dwelt in her
profile and the listlessness of her movements. This, then, was my
work - mine, and that of Monsieur de Chatellerault, and those other
merry gentlemen who had sat at my table in Paris nigh upon a month
ago.
I moved, and the gravel crunched under my foot, whereupon she turned,
and, at sight of me advancing towards her, she started. The blood
mounted to her face, to ebb again upon the instant, leaving it paler
than it had been.
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