I had learned from her the day before that the superior hardware merchant had recently made her a ceremonious offer of marriage.
"A sense of duty, perhaps," said Paragot.
I laughed at his seriousness.
"But, Master, she has been eating her heart out for you since the wedding at Chambéry."
"Asticot," said he, planting himself in front of me, "are you jesting or speaking what you know to be the truth?"
"The absolute truth."
"And you never told me? You knew that a real woman loved me, and you let me chase a will-o'-the-wisp with gloves and an umbrella? Truly a man's foes are of his own household."
"But, Master——" I began.
He laughed at the sight of my dejected face.
"No, you were loyal, my son. The man who gives away a woman's confidence, even when she avows the poisoning of her husband and the strangulation of her babes, is a transpontine villain."