Mayenne again walked up and down the room, knitting his brow and biting his lips with a degree of emotion which showed an evident distaste to the proposal of his companion. D'Aubin gazed upon him with not the most placable look, understanding the nature of his feelings, and not a little displeased to see a disposition to delay the fulfilment of the promise made to him; but at the same time feeling a secret triumph in his heart at the concatenation of circumstances which would compel the Duke of Mayenne, from political motives, to grant that which he, D'Aubin, thought ought to have been willingly accorded to his own merits and services. "My lord," he cried, with a somewhat bitter laugh, after gazing upon the Duke for two or three minutes, "I am sorry to see you hesitate upon a matter in which both policy and justice should make you decide at once. Your unconditional promise has been given, that Eugenie de Menancourt shall be my bride; and circumstances have arisen, which render it as necessary to you as agreeable to me that she should become so immediately. In regard to these circumstances, I have dealt with you honestly, and have done what you know there is scarcely another follower that you have would do,--given you advice contrary to my own interest and wishes. Now, my lord----" "Well, well!" interrupted Mayenne, "it must even be as you say, D'Aubin. There is no other resource; but remember, in wishing to find one, I am not influenced by any desire to evade a promise made to you, but solely and simply by the hope of inducing Mademoiselle de Menancourt, by persuasion, entreaty, and remonstrance, to fulfil her father's engagement, and thus spare me the pain of doing what I feel to be harsh, uncourteous, and unknightly." "Your lordship is mighty delicate in all this," replied D'Aubin; "but I am not so much so. A little wholesome compulsion will do this proud beauty no harm. Proud I may well call her; for, proud of her wealth, her loveliness, and her rank, she thinks, it seems, that she is to be treated in a different manner from every other woman in France; and I am not sorry that, in the very fact of our marriage, that proud spirit should be a little humbled, which would certainly render her not the most yielding or obedient of wives."