He spent a fortnight in Paris once, and he accounts himself, or would have us account him, intimate with every courtier at the Luxembourg.

Oh, he is very amusing, this good cousin, but tiresome too." She laughed, and there was the faintest note of scorn in her amusement.

"Now, touching this Marquis de Bardelys, it is very plain that the Chevalier boasted when he said that they were as brothers--he and the Marquis--is it not?
He grew ill at ease when you reminded him of the possibility of the Marquis's visit to Lavedan." And she laughed quaintly to herself.

"Do you think that he so much as knows Bardelys ?" she asked me suddenly.
"Not so much as by sight," I answered.

"He is full of information concerning that unworthy gentleman, but it is only information that the meanest scullion in Paris might afford you, and just as inaccurate." "Why do you speak of him as unworthy?
Are you of the same opinion as my father ?" "Aye, and with better cause." "You know him well ?" "Know him?
Pardieu, he is my worst enemy.