I was wound up. I went on telling him with all the eloquence at my command the discoveries I had made and omitted to tell him a week before: the troubles of the pretty actress, what he had been, what he was to her, the ideal of passion and art she believed she was realizing in their liaison, the temptations of luxury which surrounded her, and the crime it is to provoke the first great deception in a human being. At last I was expending, in defending the little Blue Duchess to her lover, the warmth of the unfortunate love I myself felt for her. And I was so jealous of it! It was a grievous sentimental anomaly which Jacques did not discern in spite of his keenness. He could only see in my protests the deplorable _naïveté_ with which he always believed me to be contaminated, and he replied with a smile more indulgent than ironical— “Did she tell you this in the two or three hours you were together? It is not a boat she has manned, it is a squadron, a flotilla, an armada! But, my friend, do you think I have not noticed the feelings of our little Blue Duchess? It is perfectly true that she was chaste before meeting me. But as she first threw herself at my head and knew perfectly well what she was doing, however modest she may have been, you will permit me to have no remorse, and all the more so since I have never concealed from her that I only offered her a fantasy and that I did not love her with real love. Even I have my own code of loyalty to women, although you don’t think so. Only I place it so as not to deceive them upon the quality of the little combination to which I invite them in courting them. It is for them to accept and take the consequences. If to-day Camille experiences the temptation for luxury, which, by the way, I think very natural, this temptation has nothing to do with her broken ideal. She makes that pretty excuse to herself, and that, I think, is very natural too. She is almost as sincere as the young girls who make a wealthy marriage and excuse themselves for a first love betrayed. Let her take her rich lover—you can give her my permission; let him pay for dresses for her by Worth, horses, carriages, a house and jewels! Let her take him this afternoon, to-morrow, and I swear to you I shall have no more remorse than I have in lighting this cigarette. It will even amuse me when she does so. In the meantime, accept Madam Bonnivet’s invitation. You will have a good dinner, a thing never to be disdained, and then you can thwart my dirty intrigue, as you call it, as much as you please. In love it is just as at chess. Nothing is so interesting as playing in difficulties. Besides, I am foolish to suppose even for a moment that you would not go. You will go, I can see it in your eyes.” “How?” I asked him, somewhat confused at his perspicacity. It was true that I felt my resolution to refuse destroyed by his presence alone.