CHAPTER V.THE COUNT LOSES A LADY AND FINDS A MISSION.
Camors sat for some time plunged in thought.
He was astonished at the depths he had discovered in her character; he was displeased with himself without well knowing why; and, above all, he was much struck by his cousin.
However, as he had but a slight opinion of the sincerity of women, he persuaded himself that Mademoiselle de Luc d'Estrelles, when she came to offer him her heart and hand, nevertheless knew he was not altogether a despicable match for her.

He said to himself that a few years back he might have been duped by her apparent sincerity, and congratulated himself on not having fallen into this attractive snare--on not having listened to the first promptings of credulity and sincere emotion.
He might have spared himself these compliments.

Mademoiselle de Luc d'Estrelles, as he was soon to discover, had been in that perfectly frank, generous, and disinterested state of mind in which women sometimes are.
Only, would it happen to him to find her so in the future?
That was doubtful, thanks to M.de Camors.

It often happens that by despising men too much, we degrade them; in suspecting women too much, we lose them.
About an hour passed; there was another rap at the library door.
Camors felt a slight palpitation and a secret wish that it should prove Mademoiselle Charlotte.
It was the General who entered.

He advanced with measured stride, puffed like some sea-monster, and seized Camors by the lapel of his coat.