"La Jonquiere!" repeated the duke.
"Yes. Do you not know that he is arrested?"
"Yes; I heard something of it."
"Well, I ask you, monseigneur, what you think of him?"
"I can tell you nothing, except that he has my confidence."
"If so, he must be worthy of it, monseigneur. That is all I wished to know."
"Then come to the request you had to make."
"Have you seen the young girl I brought to your house?"
"Mademoiselle Helene de Chaverny? Yes."
"Well, monsieur, I had not time to tell you then, but I tell you now, that I have loved her for a year. The dream of that year has been to consecrate my life to her happiness. I say the dream, monseigneur; for, on awaking, I saw that all hope of happiness was denied me; and yet, to give this young girl a name, a position, a fortune, at the moment of my arrest, she was about to become my wife."