"Ah!" said he, "it is my friend Mr. Aycon. Bontet, bring me some wine, too, that I may drink with my friend." And he added, addressing me: "You will find our good Bontet most obliging. He is a tenant of mine, and he will do anything to oblige me and my friends. Isn't it so, Bontet?" The fellow grunted a surly and none too respectful assent, and left the room to fetch the duke his wine. Silence followed on his departure for some seconds. Then the duke came up to where I stood, folded his arms, and looked me full in the face. "It is difficult to lose the pleasure of your company, sir," he said. "If you will depart from here alone," I retorted, "you shall find it the easiest thing in the world. For, in truth, it is not desire for your society that brings me here." He lifted a hand and tugged at his mustache. "You have, perhaps, been to the convent?" he hazarded. "I have just come from there," I rejoined. "I am not an Englishman," said he, curling the end of the mustache, "and I do not know how plain an intimation need be to discourage one of your resolute race. For my part, I should have thought that when a lady accepts the escort of one gentleman, it means that she does not desire that of another." He said this with a great air and an assumption of dignity that contrasted strongly with the unrestrained paroxysms of the night before. I take it that success--or what seems such--may transform a man as though it changed his very skin. But I was not skilled to cross swords with him in talk of that kind, so I put my hands in my pockets and leaned against the shutter and said bluntly: "God knows what lies you told her, you see." His white face suddenly flushed; but he held himself in and retorted with a sneer: "A disabled right arm gives a man fine courage." "Nonsense!" said I. "I can aim as well with my left;" and that indeed was not very far from the truth. And I went on: "Is she here?" "Mme. and Mlle. Delhasse are both here, under my escort." "I should like to see Mlle. Delhasse," I observed. He answered me in low tones, but with the passion in him closer to the surface now and near on boiling up through the thin film of his self-restraint: "So long as I live, you shall never see her." But I cared not, for my heart leaped in joy at his words. They meant to me that he dared not let me see her; that, be the meaning of her consent to go with him what it might, yet he dared not match his power over her against mine. And whence came the power he feared? It could be mine only if I had touched her heart. "I presume she may see whom she will," said I still carelessly. "Her mother will protect her from you with my help." There was silence for a minute. Then I said: "I will not leave here without seeing her." And a pause followed my words till the duke, fixing his eyes on mine, answered significantly: "If you leave here alive to-night, you are welcome to take her with you." I understood, and I nodded my head.