My apparel at the moment may not have been all that could have been
desired, but when a gentleman's rearing has taken place amid an
army of servitors to minister to his every wish, he is likely to
have acquired an air that is wont to win him obedience. With all
celerity was I ushered into a small chamber, opening on the one side
upon the common room, and being divided on the other by the thinnest
of wooden partitions from the adjoining apartment.
Here, the landlord having left me, I disposed myself to wait, and
here I did a thing I would not have believed myself capable of doing,
a thing I cannot think of without blushing to this very day. In
short, I played the eavesdropper - I, Marcel Saint-Pol de Bardelys.
Yet, if you who read and are nice-minded, shudder at this confession,
or, worse still, shrug your shoulders in contempt, with the
reflection that such former conduct of mine as I have avowed had
already partly disposed you against surprise at this I do but ask
that you measure my sin by my temptation, and think honestly whether
in my position you might not yourselves have fallen. Aye - be you
never so noble and high-principled - I make bold to say that you had
done no less, for the voice that penetrated to my ears was that of
Roxalanne de Lavedan.
"I sought an audience with the King," she was saying, "but I could
not gain his presence. They told me that he was holding no levees,
and that he refused to see any one not introduced by one of those
having the private entree.
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