“It is leading you from me?” she repeated wonderingly. “But you are doing this for me. Does not that keep me in your thoughts? You say this is not a test of love. Why should it not be? And if the lover is weary already of his task–if–” Her lip trembled.
“Dear Jacqueline, how can I make you understand? I ask you to release me from this search, not because I am tired, not merely because I think the casket can not be found. It is the principle of the thing. Supposing that the duke should bring you this casket, could that possibly alter your feeling toward him? Could that make you love him more than you do at present?”
“Why should it not?” she answered, a little defiantly. “In a sense he has shown himself a truer lover than you. He is keeping up the search, cheerfully and patiently. And yet every day he finds time to write me of his failures and his successes. Apparently, I asked him to remove mountains. He attempts the impossible gladly, and sometimes I think he will accomplish it.”
“The duke has been searching for the casket? Here, in Venice?”
“Yes, and without a moment’s rest, so he assures me. More than that, he declares he is on its track–that he will bring it to me soon.”
I was stupefied. Neither St. Hilary nor I had once seen the duke since he left my rooms. It seemed incredible that he should have been in Venice these past three weeks and that we should not know it.
“He will bring you the casket soon?” I repeated blankly. “And if he brings it to you, you are going to listen to him? Because I have said nothing, Jacqueline, have you thought me idle and indifferent? Do you trust him more than you trust me? If he has the luck to stumble on this casket, will that prove that he is more worthy of your regard than I? Will you marry him for that?”
Jacqueline looked at me a moment in silence. She laid her hand gently on my arm.
“Has this quest troubled you so much? I begin to think it a very childish one. I begin to realize my folly, and yet––”
She rose from the bench, and shaking out her skirts daintily, opened her parasol.