The Intendant was just showing us the spot of dirt cast upon
him by the mob; and I ask what satisfaction he has asked in the
Council for the insult."
"Ask satisfaction!" replied Cadet with a laugh. "Let him take it!
Satisfaction! We will all help him! But I say that the hair of the
dog that bit him will alone cure the bite! What I laughed at the
most was this morning at Beaumanoir, to see how coolly that whelp of
the Golden Dog, young Philibert, walked off with De Repentigny from
the very midst of all the Grand Company!"
"We shall lose our young neophyte, I doubt, Cadet! I was a fool to
let him go with Philibert!" remarked Bigot.
"Oh, I am not afraid of losing him, we hold him by a strong triple
cord, spun by the Devil. No fear of losing him!" answered Cadet,
grinning good-humoredly.
"What do you mean, Cadet?" The Intendant took up his cup and drank
very nonchalantly, as if he thought little of Cadet's view of the
matter. "What triple cord binds De Repentigny to us?"
"His love of wine, his love of gaming, and his love of women--or
rather his love of a woman, which is the strongest strand in the
string for a young fool like him who is always chasing virtue and
hugging vice!"
"Oh! a woman has got him! eh, Cadet? Pray who is she? When once a
woman catches a fellow by the gills, he is a dead mackerel: his fate
is fixed for good or bad in this world.
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