"There is but one great Advocate, the man who set me free. He lives yonder, then?"
"You know it, rogue," replied Vanbrugh. "There are the lights in his study window. Gautran, you and I must be better acquainted."
But he was compelled to submit to a postponement of his wish, for the next moment he was alone. Gautran had disappeared.
CHAPTER IV
[THE SILENT VOICE]
Alone in his study the Advocate had time to review his position. His first feeling, when he listened to Gautran's confession, had been one of unutterable horror, and this feeling was upon him when he entered the villa.
From his outward demeanour no person could have guessed how terrible was his inward agitation. Self-repression was in him a second nature. The habit of concealing his thoughts had been of incalculable value in his profession, and had materially assisted in many of his great victories.
But now he was alone, and when he had locked the study-door, he threw off the mask.
He had been proud of this victory; it was the greatest he had ever achieved. He knew that it would increase his fame, and that it was an important step in the ladder it had been the delight of his life to climb. Cold as he appeared, and apparently indifferent to success, his ambition was vast, overpowering. His one great aim had been not only to achieve the highest distinction while he lived, but to leave behind him a name which should be placed at the head of all his class--a clear and unsullied name which men in after times would quote as a symbol of the triumph of intellect.
It was the sublimity of egoism, contemptible when allied with intellectual inferiority and weakness of character, but justifiable in his case because it was in association with a force of mental gifts little short of marvellous.