Lucas sprang to his feet.
"You swore to me I should have her."
"Permit me to remind you again that you have not brought me the price."
"I will bring you the price."
"E'en then," spoke Mayenne, with the smile of the cat standing over the mouse—"e'en then I might change my mind."
"Then," said Lucas, roundly, "there will be more than one dead duke in France."
Mayenne looked up at him as unmoved as if it were not in the power of mortal man to make him lose his temper. In stirring him to draw dagger, Lucas had achieved an extraordinary triumph. Yet I somehow thought that the man who had shown hot anger was the real man; the man who sat there quiet was the party leader.
He said now, evenly:
"That is a silly way to talk to me, Paul."
"It is the truth for once," Lucas made sullen answer.