He played it with so much grace and passion that Bois-Doré said to him, resorting to his favorite oath, borrowed from Monsieur d'Urfé:
"Numes célestes! you need no tongue to talk of love, my dear friend, and if the object of your passion were here, she must be deaf to avoid understanding that your heart is pouring itself forth to hers. But come, will you not let me read those pages of sublime learning?"
Lucilio signified that his head was a little tired, and Bois-Doré at once sent him off to bed, after embracing him fraternally.
Giovellino, in truth, often felt that he was more of an artist and a creature of sentiment, than a scholar and philosopher. His nature was at once enthusiastic and meditative.
Meanwhile Monsieur de Bois-Doré had retired to his "night apartment," situated above the salon. He had spoken truly when he said to Lucilio that no woman ever entered that sanctuary of repose or the cabinets connected therewith; Bellinde herself was forbidden to cross the threshold under the severest penalties.
Only old Mathias—dubbed Adamas, for the same reason that Guillette Carcat was obliged to call herself Bellinde, and Jean Fachot, Clindor—was privileged to assist in the mysteries of the marquis's toilet, so perfectly sincere was he in the belief that the secret of his rouge and his dyes could be revealed only by the arsenal of boxes, phials and jars spread out upon his tables.
As usual, therefore, he found Adamas alone, preparing the curl-papers, powders and perfumed unguents which were to preserve the marquis's beauty even in his slumber.
[XII]
Adamas was a pure-blooded Gascon: stout of heart, keen of wit, untiring of tongue. Bois-Doré artlessly called him his old servant, although he himself was at least ten years his senior.
This Adamas, who had accompanied him in his last campaigns, was his âme damnée, and filled his nostrils with the incense of perpetual admiration, the more injurious to his mental equilibrium in that it was the result of a sincere infatuation. It was he who persuaded him that he was still young, that he could not grow old, and that, when he went forth from his hands, glistening and high-colored like a page from a missal, he was certain to supplant all the coxcombs and deceive all the fair.