"
The baron cast a look of positive anguish at the door of the
smoking-room. He had heard a slight movement there; and he
trembled with fear lest Pascal, maddened with anger and jealousy,
should rush in and throw himself upon the marquis. Plainly
enough, this perilous situation could not last much longer. The
baron's own powers of self-control and dissimulation were almost
exhausted, and so postponing until another time the many questions
he still wished to ask M. de Valorsay, he made haste to check
these confidential disclosures. "Upon my word," he exclaimed,
with a forced laugh, "I was expecting something quite different.
This affair begins like a genuine romance, and ends, as everything
ends nowadays, in money!"
IV.
As a millionaire and a gambler, Baron Trigault enjoyed all sorts
of privileges. He assumed the right to be brutal, ill-bred,
cynical and bold; to be one of those persons who declare that
folks must take them as they find them. But his rudeness now was
so thoroughly offensive that under any other circumstances the
marquis would have resented it. However, he had special reasons
for preserving his temper, so he decided to laugh.
"Yes, these stories always end in the same way, baron," said he.
"You haven't touched a card this morning, and I know your hands
are itching. Excuse me for making you waste precious time, as you
say; but what you have just heard was only a necessary preface.
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