They were too shrewd and too well aware of the simplest scandals of Rome not to have divined the veritable cause of the encounter between Florent and Boleslas.

On the other hand, they knew the latter too well not to mistrust somewhat his attitudes.

However, there was such simple emotion in his accent that they spontaneously pitied him, and, without another word, they no longer opposed the caprices of their strange client, whom they did not leave until two o'clock in the morning--and fortune favored them.

For they found themselves at the end of a game, recklessly played, each the richer by two or three hundred louis apiece.

That meant a few days more in Paris on the next visit.
They, too, truly regretted their friend's luck, saying, on separating: "I very much fear for him," said Cibo.