“Well, you can demand satisfaction when you obtain possession of your property: but the least scandal now would spoil your last chances.”
“I will abandon the project, then,” sighed Wilkie, despondently; “but pray advise me. What do you think of my situation?”
M. de Coralth seemed to consider a moment, and then gravely replied: “I think that, UNASSISTED, you have no chance whatever. You have no standing, no influential connections, no position—you are not even a Frenchman.”
“Alas! that is precisely what I have said to myself.”
“Still, I am convinced that with some assistance you might overcome your mother’s resistance, and even your father’s pretentions.”
“Yes, but where could I find protectors?”
The viscount’s gravity seemed to increase. “Listen to me,” said he; “I will do for you what I would not do for any one else. I will endeavor to interest in your cause one of my friends, who is all powerful by reason of his name, his fortune, and his connections—the Marquis de Valorsay, in fact.”
“The one who is so well known upon the turf?”
“The same.”
“And you will introduce me to him?”