“Really, you are a strange man,” said Gilbert, speaking as much to himself as to the other, “and if reason allowed me to put faith in what we learn from legends, I should be inclined to take you for a magician.”
“This am I for the world, Gilbert: but not for you. I have never tried to dazzle you with jugglery. You know I have always let you see the bottom of the well and if you have seen Truth come up not so scantily clothed as the painters represent her, it is because I am a Sicilian and cannot help decorating my lady-love.”
“It was here, count, that you gave me a large sum of money that I might be rich in offering my hand to Andrea de Taverney, with the same ease as I might give a penny to a beggar.”
“You forget the most extraordinary part of it: the beggar brought back the sum, except for a couple of coins which he spent for clothes.”
“He was honest but you were generous.”
“Who tells you that it was not more easy for him who handled millions to give a hundred thousand crowns than for him who was penniless to bring back so large a sum as that was to him? Besides, all depends on the man’s state of mind. I was under the blow of the loss of the only woman I ever loved—my darling wife was murdered, and I believe you might have had my life for the asking.”
“Do you feel grief, and experience it like other men,” inquired Gilbert, eyeing him with marked astonishment.
“You speak of memories this room gives you,” sighed the other. “Were I to tell you—your hair would whiten—but let it pass; leave those events in their grave. Let us speak of time present, and of that to-come if you like.”
“Count, you returned to realism just now; again you turn to pretence, for you speak of the future with the voice of a conjurer asserting the power to read indecipherable hieroglyphics.”
“You forget that having more means at my beck and call than other men, I see more clearly and farther than they. You shall see that the pretence is but a veil—solid are the facts beneath. Come, doctor, how is your Fusion Cabinet getting on? the Mirabeau-Lafayette Ministry?”