Gervase smiled, with a little shrug of impatience.

"Do I? I was not aware of it. Is inconstancy to women cruelty and
want of principle? If so, all men must bear the brunt of the
accusation with me. For men were originally barbarians, and always
looked upon women as toys or slaves; the barbaric taint is not out
of us yet, I assure you,--at any rate, it is not out of me. I am a
pure savage; I consider the love of woman as my right; if I win
it, I enjoy it as long as I please, but no longer,--and not all
the forces of heaven and earth should bind me to any woman I had
once grown weary of."

"If that is your character," said Murray stiffly, "it were well
the Princess Ziska should know it."

"True," and Gervase laughed loudly. "Tell her, man ami! Tell her
that Armand Gervase is an unprincipled villain, not worth a glance
from her dazzling eyes! It will be the way to make her adore me!
My good boy, do you not know that there is something very
marvellous in the attraction we call love? It is a pre-ordained
destiny,--and if one soul is so constituted that it must meet and
mix with another, nothing can hinder the operation. So that,
believe me, I am quite indifferent as to what you say of me to
Madame la Princesse or to anyone else. It will not be for either
my looks or my character that she will love me if, indeed, she
ever does love me; it will be for something indistinct,
indefinable but resistless in us both, which no one on earth can
explain. And now I must go, Denzil, and claim the fair one for
this waltz. Try and look less miserable, my dear fellow,--I will
not quarrel with you on the Princess's account, nor on any other