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Within the room Chatellerault and I faced each other in silence And how vastly changed were the circu!

The disorder that had stamped itself upon his countenance when first he had beheld , sullen look in his eyes and a certain displacement of their syh a cunning plotter and a scheuer in his own interests, Chatellerault, as I have said before, was not by nature a quick man His orked slowly, and he needed leisure to consider a situation and his actions therein ere he was in a position to engage with it

"Monsieur le Comte," quoth I ironically, "I make you my compliments upon your astuteness and the depth of your sche to which I am here, and in consequence of which your pretty plans are likely to reat head like a horse that feels the curb, and his s eyes looked up at me balefully Then his sensuous lips parted in scorn

"How much do you know?" he demanded with sullen contempt

"I have been in that roo the partition withwall, as you will observe, is thin, and I heard everything that passed between you and Mademoiselle de Lavedan"

"So that Bardelys, known as the Magnificent; Bardelys the antiaruar spy"

If he sought by that word to anger me, he failed

"Lord Count," I answered hie to know that the truth alone has power to wound I was in that room by accident, and when the first words of your conversation reached me I had not been human had I not remained and strained my ears to catch every syllable you uttered For the rest, let me ask you, my dear Chatellerault, since when have you become so nice that you dare cast it at a ?"

"You are obscure,that when a man stands unmasked for a cheat, a liar, and a thief, his own character should give hih to restrain him from strictures upon that of another"

A red flush showed through the tan of his skin, then faded and left hi his heavily-feathered hat upon the table, and carried his hand to his hilt