Bardelys, your wager is a madness.

Monsieur de Chatellerault, you'll not accept it.

You'll--" "Be silent," I rebuked him, with some asperity.

"What has Monsieur de Chatellerault to say ?" He was staring at the tablecloth and the stain of the wine that he had spilled when first Mademoiselle de Lavedan's name was mentioned.

His head had been bent so that his long black hair had tumbled forward and partly veiled his face.