And a doubt began to take form in his mind.

The mistress he had pictured would not laugh at kisses given to another; nor forget in a twinkling the straits through which he had come to her, the hell from which he had plucked himself! Possibly the court ladies held love as cheap as this, and lovers but as playthings, butts for their wit, and pegs on which to hang their laughter.

But--but he began to doubt, and, perplexed and irritated, he showed his feelings.
"Madame," he said stiffly, "a jest is an excellent thing.

But pardon me if I say that it is ill played on a fasting man." Madame desisted from laughter that she might speak.

"A fasting man ?" she cried.