"Why not?"
"And can you tell me whether this is not a mad passion, as I have thought, and must think until I have a proof to the opposite?"
"You ask too much, my lord. I cannot say anything until I am in contact with some portion of the love-inspirer's self—for instance, a tress of her golden hair, however scanty."
"Verily you are a deep man! You truly say you can read into hearts as I in my prayer-book."
"Almost the very words your ancestor used—I mean Chevalier Louis Rohan, when I bade farewell to him, on the execution-stage in the Bastille, which he had ascended so courageously."
"He said that you were deep?"
"And that I read hearts. For I had forewarned him that Chevalier Preault would betray him. He would not believe me, and he was betrayed."
"What a singular connection you make between my ancestor and me," said the cardinal, turning pale against his wish.
"Only to show that you ought to be wary, in procuring the lock to be cut from under a crown."