"If I give you my promise to wed you hereafter--say in six months' time--what proof will you afford me that he who is detained under the name of Lesperon shall go free ?" I caught the sound of something very like a gasp from the Count.
"Remain in Toulouse until to-morrow, and to-night ere he departs he shall come to take his leave of you.

Are you content ?" "Be it so, monsieur," she answered.
Then at last I leapt to my feet.

I could endure no more.

You may marvel that I had had the heart to endure so much, and to have so let her suffer that I might satisfy myself how far this scoundrel Chatellerault would drive his trickster's bargain.
A more impetuous man would have beaten down the partition, or shouted to her through it the consolation that Chatellerault's bargain was no bargain at all, since I was already at large.

And that is where a more impetuous man would have acted upon instinct more wisely than did I upon reason.