"I suppose," said Aymar softly, "that it has never occurred to you in your imaginative moments—no, I'm certain it has not—that all the time I had something a thousand times better than the jartier . . . a piece of such transcendent good fortune that I might well spend the rest of my life thanking God for it!"
"What do you mean?" exclaimed Laurent. "No, certainly it has not. . . . Still, of course you were very lucky in having an opponent of the type of Colonel Richard, and again in coming across him as you did at——"
He stopped, because Aymar was gently shaking him.
"Is it nature or art, Laurent, that has made you so thick-headed? You don't know what I mean? Well, go and stand in front of your looking-glass, and perhaps it will dawn upon you!"
But it dawned then and there, for as he stared at him Laurent slowly began to turn crimson.
CHAPTER X - "SANS TACHE"
"Will you leave me here?
So wrong, so proud, so weak, so unconsoled,
So mere a woman!—and I love you so,
I love you . . ."