The business which had taken him to the provincial capital detained him for several hours, but was ultimately settled to his satisfaction, and he returned homeward in a happier mood than any I had lately witnessed. He was more calm and placid than he had been for months, and met his wife with that confiding and affectionate air, which I hoped might induce her to open her whole heart to her husband at once. Had she done so, what misery she would have saved him! but she was too much afraid of him to act in the only manner that could have rebuked suspicion for ever. As I was almost constantly, on some excuse or another, in the saloon or library, I had sufficient opportunity of watching my lord's countenance, and I scanned it eagerly during the evening, to see whether the tale had been told. He was so cheerful and so gay, that his face, like a summer sky, would, in a moment, have betrayed the slightest cloud that came over him; but the day closed without any appearing, and it was clear that the Duchess, most weakly, had determined to conceal the insult offered to her by the Count de Mesnil from her husband.
The task then lay with me; and when Madame de Villardin had retired for the night, I entreated the Duke to grant me a few minute's audience. He first heard my request with a smile, and asked whether to-morrow would not do as well; but the next moment his demon woke suddenly up, a cloud came over his brow, and I could see that suspicion and distrust were once more alive. Starting up, he took one of the tapers, and beckoning me into the library, which was more retired and secure than the saloon, he shut the door, and casting himself into an arm chair, exclaimed, almost fiercely, "Now! boy! Now! What is it you have to say?"
I saw that he was dreadfully agitated, even by his own imaginations, for as yet I had not said one word to cause the slightest emotion: but still, as I have said, he was moved in an extraordinary degree; and I knew, that unless I took the means on which I had before resolved to gain an uninterrupted hearing, my story would be cut short in the midst. Advancing, therefore, as near as I well could, I knelt down before him, and said, "My lord, I have something to tell you; but you are so quick, that I am afraid of your not hearing it all. If you will give me your word of honour that you will hear every word I have to say without interrupting me, I will go on; but if you will not, I will hold my tongue, and, on my life, nothing shall ever make me open my lips."
He repaid me with a fierce glance for the conditions that I made; but as he knew that I was one to keep my word, he promised most solemnly to hear me to an end.
"Well then, my lord," I said, "I shall only farther claim, that as you give credit to one part of my story, so you shall give credit to the other; for every word that I am about to speak is equally true."
I then proceeded to recount all that I had seen in the morning after he had sent me back for the papers; and never did I see a more terrific struggle take place in a human being than that which agitated him during the recital. When I first spoke of Monsieur de Mesnil's horse tied to the tree, he had nearly broke forth; and when I came to relate the scene that first met my eye in the library, he started up from off his chair with every muscle of his face working under excessive emotion. He remembered his promise, however; and sitting down again, covered his eyes with his hand while I proceeded; but as I concluded with the words which his wife had uttered, he caught me by the arm, and gazed eagerly in my face, exclaiming--"Ha! did she say that?"
"On my honour! On my soul, she did," I replied; "as I hope in heaven!"
"Boy, you have saved me!" he exclaimed, sinking back in the chair; and to my astonishment, I saw a tear rise up in his eye and roll over his cheek. He brushed it hastily away, and then laying his hand kindly upon my shoulder, said, "John Marston, you have done your duty well and nobly, and by taking the means you have to make me hear you out, you have conferred an obligation on your lord that must never be forgotten. To a boy of your age I cannot speak as I might to others, of the vice and evil that reigns amongst our highest dames in Paris; but let it suffice, that a woman who so degrades herself becomes, to my mind, a thing of loathing and abhorrence; and if you can conceive what it is to love with the deepest intensity, you may understand what it would be to behold the beloved object suddenly change from the dearest jewel of your heart to the foulest object that earth can present to your eyes. It is worse, a thousand times, than to see the blighting change from life to death, but you have saved me; for the very suspicion of such a thing would be madness.--But you have saved me; and, after that noble speech, I shall never henceforth entertain a doubt or a fear."
How deeply, how sadly, he deceived himself, may easily be divined; for where was there yet a suspicious man that--ever laid aside his suspicions?
"As to the Count de Mesnil," he added, his lip curling both with scorn and anger, "I look upon him but as a worm: he is one of the many who think it honourable, and gay, and brilliant, to act, as she justly said, the hypocrite and the villain; and is contemptible. Nevertheless, he must not go unpunished, and must be cared for. On his account I will speak with you to-morrow; but in the meantime repeat once more what your lady replied."