They came willingly. The Intendant had laughingly wished them bon
voyage and a speedy return with his friend Le Gardeur, giving them
no other intimation of his wishes; nor could they surmise that he
had any other object in view than the pleasure of again meeting a
pleasant companion of his table and a sharer of their pleasures.
De Pean had no difficulty in enticing Le Gardeur down to the village
inn, where he had arranged that he should meet, by mere accident, as
it were, his old city friends.
The bold, generous nature of Le Gardeur, who neither suspected nor
feared any evil, greeted them with warmth. They were jovial
fellows, he knew, who would be affronted if he refused to drink a
cup of wine with them. They talked of the gossip of the city, its
coteries and pleasant scandals, and of the beauty and splendor of
the queen of society--Angelique des Meloises.
Le Gardeur, with a painful sense of his last interview with
Angelique, and never for a moment forgetting her reiterated words,
"I love you, Le Gardeur, but I will not marry you," kept silent
whenever she was named, but talked with an air of cheerfulness on
every other topic.
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