Ah! does he also love her?
There will be three rivals in that case." But the more difficult and even perilous the undertaking seemed, the more his passions were inflamed.
"My failures can be repaired," he thought.

"Occasions of meeting shall not be wanting.

Will it not be necessary to hold frequent interviews with Monsieur Lacheneur in effecting a formal transfer of Sairmeuse?
I will win him over to my side.

With the daughter my course is plain.
Profiting by my unfortunate experience, I will, in the future, be as timid as I have been bold; and she will be hard to please if she is not flattered by this triumph of her beauty.

D'Escorval remains to be disposed of----" But this was the point upon which Martial was most exercised.
He had, it is true, seen this rival rudely dismissed by M.Lacheneur; and yet the anger of the latter had seemed to him too great to be absolutely real.
He suspected a comedy, but for whose benefit?
For his, or for Chanlouineau's?
And yet, what could possibly be the motive?
"And yet," he reflected, "my hands are tied; and I cannot call this little d'Escorval to account for his insolence.