And he
has not made any failures--as yet."
Lucas sprang to his feet.
"You swore to me I should have her."
"Permit me to remind you again that you have not brought me the price."
"I will bring you the price."
"E'en then," spoke Mayenne, with the smile of the cat standing over the
mouse--"e'en then I might change my mind."
"Then," said Lucas, roundly, "there will be more than one dead duke in
France."
Mayenne looked up at him as unmoved as if it were not in the power of
mortal man to make him lose his temper. In stirring him to draw dagger,
Lucas had achieved an extraordinary triumph. Yet I somehow thought that
the man who had shown hot anger was the real man; the man who sat there
quiet was the party leader.
He said now, evenly:
"That is a silly way to talk to me, Paul."
"It is the truth for once," Lucas made sullen answer.
So long as he could prick and irritate Mayenne he preserved an air of
unshakable composure; but when Mayenne recovered patience and himself
began to prick, Lucas's guard broke down. His voice rose a key, as it
had done when I called him fool; and he burst out violently:
"Mort de dieu! monsieur, what am I doing your dirty work for? For love
of my affectionate uncle?"
"It might well be for that. I have been your affectionate uncle, as you
say."
"My affectionate uncle, you say? My hirer, my suborner! I was a
Protestant; I was bred up by the Huguenot Lucases when my father cast
off my mother and me to starve.
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