written it above that this discovery altered my opinion of the Château de l'Épée and of its mistress just about as suddenly as a man's opinion could be altered. It is one thing to believe that you're asked to a house to play cards; it is another to wake up to the fact that you are the guest of queer folks who can't afford to be seen in the daylight, and whose object in lying low doesn't altogether explain itself. That the Comte de Faugère was lying low, I never had a doubt from the start of it. And yet this continued to be the puzzle—that he was at the château, while they gave it out that he was in Paris.
It was daylight that morning before I went to sleep. There were moments when I said that I would have it out with Sir Nicolas Steele before another day was passed; other moments when I remembered what a poor hand he was at holding his tongue, and resolved that I would get deeper down into it before I shared it with him. "Maybe," said I, "it doesn't concern us any more than the pump in the court yonder; maybe it concerns us very much indeed.
In either case, his is not the head to deal with it, for he's blind set on the woman and won't listen to reason."
This thought prevailed in the end, and I went to shave him in the morning just like a man got up from a long night's sleep. I found him irritable and not over disposed to talk; and I could see that he had been losing pretty heavily the night before. In fact, he was almost dressed before he said any thing at all, and then he spoke short and almost curt.
"Is it good quarters ye have below?" he asked.
"The best," said I; "they've put us out at the little place in the park yonder."
"Ay, 'tis the picture of a house," said he, "and some very pretty company in it."
"That's so, sir," said I; "there must be a wonderful lot of money on this very landing."
"Ye speak truth," cried he; "the duke alone has enough to buy a kingdom."
"So I've been told," said I, trying my best to draw him out; "and a rare one for cards he is, they tell me."
"I'll not deny it," he exclaimed, as he took the towel from my hands; "he plays like a gentleman."
"Like a what, sir?" said I, sudden, for I couldn't keep the thing back.
"Like a gentleman," he answered, very slow and deliberately, "and it's me that should know, for I lost three hundred to him last night."
"I'm sorry to hear that, sir," said I, "and madame not liking the play, either."
"Sure, she doesn't like it at all; but what could she do in her own house when the duke brings out his cloth, and says, 'Just one game for the luck of it?' Faith, he carries a board wherever he goes, and you might as well expect a child not to touch the jam as to keep his fingers off it. And 'tis wonderful luck he has, too. He won on manque fifteen times running last night. I've never seen the like."
"Let's hope his luck will change, sir," said I, as he put on his coat to go down stairs; "we couldn't afford many nights like that."
"Indeed, and we couldn't, and she'll not be allowing it, either. She detests the play entirely—and no wonder, with a brother that's half a Jesuit, and the lesson her husband taught her not yet forgotten. He lost a fortune at the cards in Paris, ye may know. Bedad! they say he would have played with the priest that came to anoint him."
This was all the talk we had that day, for he spent the morning riding in the woods with Mme. Pauline; and when he dressed for dinner at night he was in such a fluster to make himself fine that I could not get a word with him. As the thing stood, he could not tell me any thing which would help me to get to the bottom of the mystery in the park; and that was the matter my mind ran upon. Hour after hour I'd been thinking of it, yet not a foot further had I got; and I was just about burning with curiosity when eleven o'clock at night came, and I set off through the woods to take a second look at the pavilion. This time, however, I went warily, creeping like a shadow through the trees; and once at the little house, I did not content myself with watching it from the thicket opposite, as I had done the night before; but I lay down boldly at that side of it nearest the wood, and so placed myself that I could not only see my man, but hear him. And this I did without danger. The windows of the place looked out back and front; there was a thick bush to hide my body; and a great shadow, for the moon shone bright and clear, lying half over the lawn in the clearing. I was as safe from sight as a bird in the corn; the place could not have served me better if I had planned it myself.