"No, Adamas, no word of it shall ever issue from my mouth, sealed as it is by the oath of a loyal knight. I swore that I would not divulge the secret of my felicity. All that I can say to you, my friend, is to rejoice now with your master, and to hope with him in the future!"
"Then it is all arranged, is it, monsieur, and——"
Adamas was interrupted by a soft scratching, as of a cat, at the door.
"Ah!" he said, after he had looked out, "it is the child; he wants to bid you good-night.—Go away, my young friend, monseigneur will see you later; he is busy now."
"Yes, yes, Adamas, let him come again! I have something to say about children. Some very strange ideas on the subject of paternity came into my head yesterday. This freak is worthy of the lowest bourgeois! No! no! I am no longer the old bachelor who wanted to marry in hot haste, to have done with it. I am a young man, Adamas, yes, a young lover, a dandy, on my word, affectionately sentenced to prove his constancy by the test of time, to sigh and write poetry; in a word, to await, in the torments and ecstasies of hope, the good pleasure of my sovereign."
"If I understand rightly," said Adamas, "this jealous divinity mistrusts my master's fickle humor, and demands that he renounce all love-making!"
"Yes, yes, that is it, Adamas; that must be it! A little distrust! That is a fitting punishment for my wild youth; but I shall be so well able to prove my sincerity—Go to the door; he is still knocking!"
"What!" said Adamas seriously to Mario, opening the door slightly, "is it you again, my little imp? Did I not tell you to wait?"
"I have waited," Mario replied, in his soft voice—soft and caressing even in his mischief; "you told me to go away and come back. I went to the end of the next room, and now I have come back."
"The little rascal!" said the marquis; "let him come in.—Bonjour, my young friend; just come to kiss me, then play quietly with Fleurial. I have some important business to discuss with good Monsieur Adamas. Come, Adamas, the day after to-morrow I am to entertain my incomparable neighbor. We must be preparing for it; a little informal dinner, fourteen courses at the most."