"You have, in the person of your host, a rival with whom you can amuse yourself; make the most of the opportunity."
D'Alvimar laughed in his sleeve at the idea of rivalry from such a quarter; his plan was to attack the young lady's heart at once. Little he cared for her father's approval. He thought that, if he were once in control of Lauriane's feelings, there would be no difficulty about the rest.
Bois-Doré reasoned differently. He could not doubt the esteem and attachment of both father and daughter for him. He did not hope to take her imagination by surprise and turn her head; he would have liked to be alone with them, to set forth in simple terms his advantages in the way of rank and wealth; after which he hoped, by humble attentions, to make his purpose manifest ingeniously and honorably. In short, he determined to act the part of a well-bred youth of good family, while his rival preferred to carry the place by storm like a hero of romance.
De Beuvre, who saw that D'Alvimar was becoming sentimental, vexed his old friend sorely by leading him away along the little stream, to ask him numerous questions touching his guest's rank and fortune; to which Bois-Doré could make no other reply than that Monsieur d'Ars had recommended him to him as a man of quality to whom he was much attached.
"Guillaume is young," said Monsieur de Beuvre; "but he realizes too well what he owes us to introduce to us a man unworthy of a cordial reception at our hands. Still, I am surprised that he told you nothing more; but Monsieur de Villareal must have confided to you his motive in coming hither. How does it happen that he did not accompany Guillaume to the fêtes at Bourges?"
Bois-Doré could not answer that question; but in his inmost heart De Beuvre was convinced that this mystery concealed no other design than that of paying court to his daughter.
"He must have seen her somewhere, when she did not notice him," he said to himself; "and although he seems a very earnest Catholic, he also seems very much in love with her."
He said to himself further that, in the then state of affairs, a Catholic Spanish son-in-law might restore the fortunes of his house and repair the wrong he had done his daughter by joining the ranks of the Reformers.
If for no other reason than to give the lie to the Jesuits, who had threatened him, he would have been glad to learn that the Spaniard was of sufficiently good family to pretend to the hand of Lauriane, even if he were only moderately wealthy.
Monsieur de Beuvre reasoned like a sceptic. He did not talk so loudly of Montaigne's Essays, as Bois-Doré did of Astrée, but he fed his mind upon them assiduously, and he read no other book.