"And I love her with my heart and soul," continued Maurice impetuously. "Oh! I cannot tell you what we have suffered--she and I--when the exigencies of her position and the will of her father parted us--seemingly for ever. Her heart was broken and so was mine: and I endured the tortures of hell when I realised at last that she was lost to me for ever and that her exquisite person--her beautiful soul--were destined for the delight of that low-born traitor Victor de Marmont." He drew breath, for he had half exhausted himself with the volubility and vehemence of his diction. Also he seemed to be waiting for some encouragement from Clyffurde, who, however, gave him none, but sat unmoved and apparently supremely indifferent, while a suffering heart was pouring out its wails of agony into his unresponsive ear. "The reason," resumed St. Genis somewhat more calmly, "why M. le Comte de Cambray was opposed to our union, was purely a financial one. Our families are of equal distinction and antiquity, but alas! our fortunes are also of equal precariousness: we, Sir, of the old noblesse gave up our all, in order to follow our King into exile. Victor de Marmont was rich. His fortune could have repurchased the ancient Cambray estates and restored to that honoured name all the brilliance which it had sacrificed for its principles." Still Clyffurde remained irritatingly silent, and St. Genis asked him somewhat tartly: "I trust I am making myself clear, Sir?" "Perfectly, so far," replied the other quietly, "but I am afraid I don't quite see how you propose that I could serve Mlle. Crystal in all this." "You can with one word, one generous action, Sir, put me in a position to claim Crystal as my wife, and give her that happiness which she craves for, and which is rightly her due." A slight lifting of the eyebrows was Clyffurde's only comment. "Mr. Clyffurde," now said Maurice, with the obvious firm resolve to end his own hesitancy at last, "you say yourself that by taking this money to His Majesty, or rather to his minister, you, individually, will get neither glory nor even gratitude--your name will not appear in the transaction at all. I am quoting your own words, remember. That is so, is it not?" "It is so--certainly." "But, Sir, if a Frenchman--a royalist--were able to render his King so signal a service, he would not only gain gratitude, but recognition and glory. . . . A man who was poor and obscure would at once become rich and distinguished. . . ." "And in a position to marry the woman he loved," concluded Bobby, smiling. Then as Maurice said nothing, but continued to regard him with glowing, anxious eyes, he added, smiling not altogether kindly this time, "I think I understand, M. de St. Genis." "And . . . what do you say?" queried the other excitedly.