“But there is a third,” said the marchioness, in a voice in which emotion began to evince itself, “and I know not what I have to expect from him.”
“Let me accomplish a last duty, madam, and that once fulfilled, he will on his knees await your orders.”
“And of what nature is this duty?”
“It is to restore his brother to the rank to which he is entitled, his sister to that happiness which she has lost—to his mother that tranquillity of mind, which she has so long sought in vain.”
“And yet, thanks to you,” replied the marchioness, “M. de Maurepas refused to M. de Lectoure the regiment he had solicited for my son.”
“Because,” replied Paul, taking the commission from his pocket and laying it on the table, “because the king had already granted it to me, for the brother of Marguerite.”
The marchioness cast her eyes upon the commission, and saw that it was made out in the name of Emanuel d’Auray.
“And yet you would give the hand of Marguerite to a man without name, without fortune—and what is more, to a man who is banished.”
“You are mistaken, madam; I would give Marguerite to the man she loves. I would give Marguerite not to the banished Lusignan, but to the Baron Anatole de Lusignan, his majesty’s governor of the Island of Gaudaloupe—there is his commission also.” The marchioness looked at the parchment, and saw that in this instance, as in the former one, Paul had uttered but the truth.
“Yes, I acknowledge it,” she replied, “these will satisfy the ambition of Emanuel, and confer happiness on Marguerite.”