«You are afraid of him?»
«I confess it. Oh, not for myself, Monsieur Pitt. But there is Lucienne. He pays his court to her.»
Jeremy quivered with fury. «Could you not forbid him your house?»
«Of course.» Monsieur d'Ogeron smiled crookedly. «I did something of the kind once before, in the case of Levasseur. You know the story.»
«Oh, but…Oh, but…» Jeremy encountered a difficulty, but finally surmounted it. «Mademoiselle Madeleine was so misguided as to lend herself to the scheme of Levasseur. You do not dream that Mademoiselle Lucienne —»
«Why should I not dream it? This Tondeur canaille though he be, is not without attraction, and he has over Levasseur the advantage that he was once a gentleman and can still display the manners of one when it suits him. An inexperienced child like Lucienne is easily allured by your bold, enterprising wooer.»
Mr. Pitt was a little sick at heart and bewildered. «Yet what good can temporising do? Sooner or later you will have to reject him. And then…What then?»
«It is what I ask myself,» said Monsieur d'Ogeron almost lugubriously. «Yet an evil that is postponed may ultimately be removed by chance.» And then, suddenly, his manner changed. «Oh, but your pardon, my dear Mr. Pitt. Our talk is taking a turn very far from what I intended. A father's anxiety! I meant to do no more than utter a warning, and I beg that you will heed it.»
Mr. Pitt thought he understood. What was in Monsieur d'Ogeron's mind was that Tondeur scented a rival in Jeremy and that such a man would take prompt means to eliminate a rival.
«I am obliged to you, Monsieur d'Ogeron. I can take care of myself.»