I love Genevi?ve de Canaples.
I have loved her, I think, since the moment I beheld her in the inn at
Choisy, and, what is more, she loves me."
"So that--?" I asked with an ill-repressed sneer.
"We have plighted our troth, and with her father's sanction, or without it,
she will do me the honour to become my wife."
"Admirable!" I exclaimed. "And my Lord Cardinal?"
"May hang himself on his stole for aught I care."
"Ah! Truly a dutiful expression for a nephew who has thwarted his uncle's
plans!"
"My uncle's plans are like himself, cold and selfish in their ambition."
"Andrea, Andrea! Whatever your uncle may be, to those of your blood, at
least, he was never selfish."
"Not selfish!" he cried. "Think you that he is enriching and contracting
great alliances for us because he loves us? No, no. Our uncle seeks to
gain our support and with it the support of those noble houses to which he
is allying us. The nobility opposes him, therefore he seeks to find
relatives among noblemen, so that he may weather the storm of which his
far-seeing eyes have already detected the first dim clouds.
Pages:
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197