'Anthony's?'
'Yes, Valerie, and he loves you, and I will not blame—I wish—I would ask——'
Valerie's glance met his. She understood.
'No,' she said; 'I will thank him, and like him dearly and pray for him, but not that—no, not ever that!'
A quiet knock on the door.
'And now it is good-bye.'
CHAPTER XXXI.
DUKE GUSTAVE.
Whatever may be said to the contrary, the fact remains that a little independent success acts on a morally weak man as a glass of wine upon a physically weak one. For a time it exalts and quickens him.