When he reached home that evening he found on his writing-table the
ivory casket and the letter of Madame de Vannes. In the pain and
the passion which wrestled together against his manhood in him, he
scarcely heeded either, yet they brought before his memory the face of
Yseulte, and the sound of her soft grave voice with that sweet thrill
of youth in it which is like the thrill of the thrush's in the woods at
spring-time. She had youth, but she would have no spring-time.
And in the strong and impotent rage which consumed him, in the pain of
bruised and aching nerves, and the sickening void which the certain
loss of what alone is loved brings with it, Othmar, seeing the ivory
casket, and glancing at the letter which he had had no patience to
read through, thought to himself, 'The child loves me; she will have
a wretched life; what if I try to forget? They threw virgins to the
Minotaur. Shall I try to appease with one this cruel fire of love,
which leaves me no peace or wisdom?'
It was the act of a madman to attempt to make one woman take the place
of another to the senses or to the heart, but in that moment he was
not master of himself. He was only sensible of a cruel insult which he
had received from the hand he loved best on earth; of a cruel betrayal
which was but the more merciless because wrought with so sweet a smile,
so apparent an unconsciousness, so seemingly innocent a malice.
He passed the night and the next morning locked in his own room; when
he left it, and met the Baron Friederich, he said to him:
'I have thought over all you said the other day. You are right, no
doubt. Will you go across to our neighbours at Millo and ask of them
the honour of the hand of their cousin, of Mademoiselle de Valogne?'
The Baron stared at him with a little cry of amaze.
'For you?' he stammered.
'For me,' said Othmar. 'What have you said yourself? I do not want
wealth; I want good blood, beauty, and innocence; they are all
possessed by Mademoiselle de Valogne. Go; your errand will please them.
They will pardon some breach of etiquette. It will be a mission which
you will like.'
As the Baron, a little later, rolled through the gates of Millo in full
state, his shrewd knowledge of men and their madnesses made him think:
'So the Princess Napraxine evidently will have nothing to say to him!
_A la bonne heure!_ There are some honest women left then amongst the
great ladies. She could so easily have ruined him! He takes a droll
way to cure himself, but it is not a bad one. The worst is, that this
sort of cure never lasts long, and when she can make the unhappiness of
two persons, instead of only the happiness of one, perhaps Madame la
Princesse will be tempted to make it!'