Slowly but surely it darkened my mood. After all, this was a
little, little place; the people who lived here--I shrugged my
shoulders. France, power, pleasure, life, everything worth
winning, worth having, lay yonder in the great city. A boy might
wreck himself here for a fancy; a man of the world, never. When
I entered the room, where the two ladies stood waiting for me by
the table, I was nearly my old self again. And a chance word
presently completed the work.
'Clon made you understand, then?' the young woman said kindly,
as I took my seat.
'Yes, Mademoiselle,' I answered. On that I saw the two smile at
one another, and I added: 'He is a strange creature. I wonder
that you can bear to have him near you.'
'Poor man! You do not know his story?' Madame said.
'I have heard something of it,' I answered. 'Louis told me.'
'Well, I do shudder at him sometimes,' she replied, in a low
voice. 'He has suffered--and horribly, and for us. But I wish
that it had been on any other service. Spies are necessary
things, but one does not wish to have to do with them! Anything
in the nature of treachery is so horrible.
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