Part 53 (2/2)

The silence was complete Andre-Louis sat down

CHAPTER VIII THE PALADIN OF THE THIRD

M Le Chevalier de Chabrillane had been closely connected, you will remember, with the iniquitous affair in which Philippe de Vilh to justify a surmise that he had not merely been La Tour d'Azyr's second in the encounter, but actually an instigator of the business Andre-Louisup the Chevalier's life to the Manes of his murdered friend He may have viewed it as an act of common justice not to be procured by any other one confidently to thethat he, a practised ferailleur, had to deal with a bourgeois utterly unskilled in swordsmanshi+p Morally, then, he was little better than a murderer, and that he should have tu for Andre-Louis was a poetic retribution

Yet, notwithstanding all this, I should find the cynical note on which Andre-Louis announced the issue to the assembly utterly detestable did I believe it sincere It would justify Aline of the expressed opinion, which she held in common with so many others who had come into close contact with him, that Andre-Louis was quite heartless

You have seen so of the same heartlessness in his conduct when he discovered the faithlessness of La Binet although that is belied by the e himself His subsequent contempt of the woman I account to be born of the affection in which for a time he held her

That this affection was as deep as he first iined, I do not believe; but that it was as shallow as he would almost be at pains to make it appear by the completeness hich he affects to have put her from his mind when he discovered her worthlessness, I do not believe; nor, as I have said, do his actions encourage that belief Then, again, his callous cynicis that he had killed Binet is also an affectation Knowing that such things as Binet are better out of the world, he can have suffered no compunction; he had, you s in their just proportions, and never either nifies or reduces them by sentimental considerations At the sa of life with such complete and cynical equanimity, whatever the justification, is quite incredible

Siht fro of ato the fact in tereous flippancy Not quite to such an extent was he the incarnation of Scaramouche But sufficiently was he so ever to hts by an effective phrase He was the actor always, athe effect he would produce, ever avoiding self-revelation, ever concerned to overlay his real character by an assu of ihed now at his flippancy He did not intend that anybody should He intended to be terrible; and he knew that the more flippant and casual his tone, the more terrible would be its effect He produced exactly the effect he desired

What followed in a place where feelings and practices had become what they had become is not difficult to surmise When the session rose, there were a dozen spadassins awaiting him in the vestibule, and this tiuard hi himself; he appeared, for all his circumspection, to have so completely carried the war into the enemy's camp, so completely to have adopted their own methods, that his fellows scarcely felt the need to protect hied, he scanned that hostile file, whose air and garmentsthe e But M de La Tour d'Azyr was absent froer ranks This seemed to him odd La Tour d'Azyr was Chabrillane's cousin and closest friend Surely he should have been a the first to-day The fact was that La Tour d'Azyr was too deeply overcorief at the utterly unexpected event Also his vindictiveness was held curiously in leash

Perhaps he, too, remembered the part played by Chabrillane in the affair at Gavrillac, and saw in this obscure Andre-Louis Moreau, who had so persistently persecuted hinance he felt to co provocation, was puzzling even to himself But it existed, and it curbed him now

To Andre-Louis, since La Tour was not one of that waiting pack, itwho should be the next The next, as it happened, was the young Vicoroup

On the Wednesday ain an hour or so late to the assembly, Andre-Louis announced--in much the same terms as he had announced the death of Chabrillane--that M de La Motte-Royau would probably not disturb the har that he were so fortunate as to recover ultimately from the effects of an unpleasant accident hich he had quite unexpectedly had the

On Thursday he ard to the Vidame de Blavon On Friday he told them that he had been delayed by M de Troiscantins, and then turning to thehis face to a sylad to inform you, messieurs, that M des Troiscantins is in the hands of a very coeon who hopes with care to restore him to your councils in a feeeks' ti, fantastic, unreal; and friend and foe in that assembly sat alike stupefied under those bland daily announcements Four of the most redoubtable spadassinicides put away for a time, one of them dead--and all this performed with such an air of indifference and announced in such casual teran to assuroup of philosophers of the Cote Gauche, who refused to worshi+p any force but the force of reason, began to look upon him with a respect and consideration which no oratorical triumphs could ever have procured hiradually over Paris

Desyric upon him in his paper ”Les Revolutions,”

wherein he dubbed hiht the fancy of the people, and clung to him for some time

Disdainfully was he an of the Privileged party, so light-heartedly and provocatively edited by a group of gentleular mental myopy

The Friday of that very busy week in the life of this youngus that he is not in any sense a e eress between Le Chapelier and Kersain

So surprised was he that he checked in his stride

”Have they had enough?” he wondered, addressing the question to Le Chapelier

”They have had enough of you, I should think,” was the answer ”They will prefer to turn their attention to some one less able to take care of hi Andre-Louis had lent himself to this business with a very definite object in view The slaying of Chabrillane had, as far as it went, been satisfactory He had regarded that as a sort of acceptable hors d'oeuvre But the three who had folloere no affair of his at all He had nance, and dealt with each as lightly as consideration of his own safety per of him now to cease whilst the man at whom he aimed had not presented himself? In that case it would be necessary to force the pace!

Out there under the awning a group of gentleroup in a rapid glance, Andre-Louis perceived M de La Tour d'Azyr ahtened his lips He must afford no provocation It must be for them to fasten their quarrels upon hi had torn the -master of the Rue du Hasard, successor to Bertrand des Amis Hazardous as it had been hitherto for a le combat it was rendered doubly so by this exposure, offered to the public as an aristocratic apologia