"Fair words are like flowers, Chevalier," replied she, "sweet to
smell and pretty to look at; but love feeds on ripe fruit. Will you
prove your devotion to me if I put it to the test?"
"Most willingly, Angelique!" Bigot thought she contemplated some
idle freak that might try his gallantry, perhaps his purse. But she
was in earnest, if he was not.
"I ask, then, the Chevalier Bigot that before he speaks to me again
of love or devotion, he shall remove that lady, whoever she may be,
from Beaumanoir!" Angelique sat erect, and looked at him with a
long, fixed look, as she said this.
"Remove that lady from Beaumanoir!" exclaimed he in complete
surprise; "surely that poor shadow does not prevent your accepting
my devotion, Angelique?"
"Yes, but it does, Chevalier! I like bold men. Most women do, but
I did not think that even the Intendant of New France was bold
enough to make love to Angelique des Meloises while he kept a wife
or mistress in stately seclusion at Beaumanoir!"
Bigot cursed the shrewishness and innate jealousy of the sex, which
would not content itself with just so much of a man's favor as he
chose to bestow, but must ever want to rule single and alone.
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