If that throne were vacant of a king--
Let us not talk politics."
"Madame has no love for me," said Maurice.
"Madame has no love for any one, if that will give you any
satisfaction."
"It does. My lord the Englishman came near striking me last night."
"I would not lay that up against him. Madame was the power
behind the throne."
"And the impulse behind Madame?" smiling.
"You are the only man who has ever crossed Madame's path; she
can not forget it."
"And she has put me in a bad light, as far as Fitzgerald is
concerned. A man will believe anything a woman says to him, if
he loves her."
"Let us avoid dissertations."
"What do you want to talk about?"
"Yourself; you are interesting, entertaining, and instructive,"
the Colonel answered, laughing. "I never ran across an American
who wasn't, and I have met a number. What have you done to
Beauvais?"
"It is not exactly what I've done; it is what I know."
"What do you know?"
Maurice repeated the story.
"And you bested him at the rapiers?" in astonishment.
"Is there anything startling about it?" asked Maurice.
"He has no match hereabout.
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