“Ah! you are right! Faith! you are no blunderer!” she said after a pause. “When we love our friends, we serve them,” he replied, sententiously. To capture Brigitte would be like carrying the redoubt of the Moskowa, the culminating strategic point. But it was necessary to possess that old maid as the devil was supposed in the middle ages to possess men, and in a way to make any awakening impossible for her. For the last three days la Peyrade had been measuring himself for the task; he had carefully reconnoitred the ground to see all difficulty. Flattery, that almost infallible means in able hands, would certainly miscarry with a woman who for years had known she had no beauty. But a man of strong will finds nothing impregnable; the Lamarques could never have failed to take Capri. Therefore, nothing must be omitted from the memorable scene which was now to take place; all things about it had their own importance,--inflections of the voice, pauses, glances, lowered eyes. “But,” rejoined Brigitte, “you have already proved to us your affection.” “Your brother has told you--?” “No, he merely told me that you had something to tell me.” “Yes, mademoiselle, I have; for you are the man of the family. In reflecting on this matter, I find many dangers for myself, such as a man only risks for his nearest and dearest. It involves a fortune; thirty to forty thousand francs a year, and not the slightest speculation--a piece of landed property. The hope of helping Thuillier to win such a fortune enticed me from the first. ‘It fascinates me,’ I said to him--for, unless a man is an absolute fool, he can’t help asking himself: ‘Why should he care to do us all this good?’ So I told him frankly that in working for his interests, I flattered myself I was working for my own, as I’ll explain to you later. If he wishes to be deputy, two things are absolutely necessary: to comply with the law as to property, and to win for his name some sort of public celebrity. If I myself push my devotion to the point of helping him to write a book on public financiering--or anything else, no matter what--which would give him that celebrity, I ought also to think of the other matter, his property--it would be absurd to expect you to give him this house--” “For my brother? Why, I’d put it in his name to-morrow,” cried Brigitte. “You don’t know me.” “I don’t know you thoroughly,” said la Peyrade, “but I do know things about you which now make me regret that I did not tell you the whole affair from its origin; I mean from the moment when I conceived the plan to which Thuillier will owe his nomination. He will be hunted down by envy and jealousy, and the task of upholding him will be a hard one; we must, however, get the better of his rivals and take the wind out of their sails.” “But this affair,” said Brigitte, “what are the difficulties?”