Why should he put himself in this position for Jeanne, great heiress though she might be?
But somehow or other, after he had tossed off two glasses of champagne at the buffet, he realized that his fancy for her was a real thing, and one from which he could not so readily escape.

If she had wished to deliberately attract him, she could scarcely have chosen means more calculated to attain that end than by this avowed indifference, even dislike.

He sat by himself in a small smoking-room and thought of her--her slim girlish perfection of figure and bearing, her perfect complexion, her beautiful eyes, her scarlet lips.

All these things came into his mind as he sat there, until he felt his cheeks flush with the desire to succeed, and his eyes grow bright at the thought of the time when he should hold her in his arms and take what revenge he chose for these slights.

No! he would not let her go, he determined.