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It was surprising with what assiduity he pursued his studies. Mademoiselle Leonore, the Chevalier's daughter, would carry on her little industry very undisturbedly in the same parlour with her father and his pupil.
Matta consented, though he liked the other better; but the Chevalier de Grammont persuaded him that Madame de Senantes was more suitable for him. As he had reaped advantage from the Chevalier's talents in the first projects they had formed, he resolved to follow his instructions in love, as he had done his advice in play.
"I knew only too well what was preparing against him, and I was also most eager to find some honourable means of escape for myself. M. Chevalier's absence troubled me greatly, and I did not like to leave him behind me. At last he arrived on the 16th or 17th. I had taken the precaution to provide myself with a parwana, or passport, signed by Siraj-ud-daula, allowing me to go where I pleased.
As for his coat, though remarkable for its cleanliness, it was always half worn-out, but without spots or creases. The preservation of that garment was something marvellous to those who noticed the chevalier's high-bred indifference to its shabbiness.
"Better have no more memory of the late Lord Glenvarloch," said Lord Dalgarno, interrupting the Chevalier without ceremony; who perceived that the encomium which he was about to pass on the deceased was likely to be as disagreeable to the son as it was totally undeserved by the father, who, far from being either a gamester or libertine, as the Chevalier's reminiscences falsely represented him, was, on the contrary, strict and severe in his course of life, almost to the extent of rigour.
"So very soon the Chevalier's banque, with its heaps of gold, was going on again more brilliantly than ever. His luck had not forsaken him; victim after victim fell a prey, and money was amassed. But Angela's happiness was a thing of the past destroyed, in a terrible fashion, like a brief, bright dream. The Chevalier treated her with indifference more than that, with contempt.
Good living, bad economy, dishonest servants, and ill-luck, all uniting together to disconcert their housekeeping, their table was going to be gradually laid aside, when the Chevalier's genius, fertile in resources, undertook to support his former credit by the following expedient.
"One night a young gentleman of good family, after losing all he possessed at the Chevalier's banque, sent a bullet through his head in the gaming-house and indeed in the very room where the banque was established so that the blood and brains besprinkled the players, who scattered out of the way in alarm.
Suddenly the little chevalier broke in. "By the head of John the Baptist!" said he. Detricand put down his knife and fork in amazement, and Guida coloured, for the words sounded almost profane upon the chevalier's lips. Du Champsavoys held up his eye-glass, and, turning from one to the other, looked at each of them imperatively yet abstractedly too.
"Give him the despatch, Raoul! you are the chevalier's prisoner." Raoul gave it up reluctantly; Aramis instantly seized and read it. "You," he said, "you, who are so trusting, read and reflect that there is something in this letter important for us to see."
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