The Marquis let go the door handle, and came back to his father’s side. “I beg your pardon, sir.” He took Avon’s thin hand in his, and bent to touch it with his lips. “ Adieu, mon père.”
“Let us say, rather, au revoir,” Avon answered. “I will spare you my blessing, which I cannot conceive would benefit you in the least.”
Upon which they parted, each one understanding the other tolerably well.
Vidal’s interview with his mother lasted much longer, and was to him even more unpleasant. Léonie had no reproaches for him, but she was plainly unhappy, and the Marquis hated to see his mother unhappy.
“It’s my damnable temper, maman,” he said ruefully.
She nodded. “I know. That is why I am feeling very miserable. It is no good people saying you are a devil like all the Alastairs, because me, I know that it is my temper that you have, mon pauvre. You see, there is very black blood in my family.” She shook her head sadly. “M. de Saint-Vire — my father, you understand — was of a character the most abominable. And hot-headed! He shot himself in the end, which was a very good thing. He had red hair like mine.”
“I haven’t that excuse,” said her son, grinning.
“No, but you behave just as I should like to when I am enraged,” Léonie said candidly. “When I was young I was very fond of shooting people dead. Of course, I never did shoot anyone, but I wanted to — oh, often! I meant to shoot my father once — which shocked Rupert — it was when M. de Saint-Vire kidnapped me, and Rupert saved me — only Monseigneur arrived, and he would not at all permit it.” She paused, wrinkling her brow. “You see, Dominique, I am not a respectable person, and you are not a respectable person either. And I did want you to be.”
“I’m sorry, maman. But I don’t come of respectable stock, either side.”
“Ah, but the Alastairs are quite different,” Léonie said quickly. “No one minds if you have affaires. Of course, if you are a very great rake people say you are a devil, but it is quite in the mode and entirely respectable. Only when you do things that other people do not do, like you, and make scandals, then at once you are not respectable.”