But I
saw the trap spread before me. He expected, under the influence of
champagne and courtesy, to extract a promise from me which I must find
myself unable to give.
'Sir, you interest me by claiming kinship with France. I had
understood that you belonged to one of the oldest families of
England.'
'Ah, England!' he cried, with an expressive gesture of outspreading
hands truly Parisian in its significance. 'The trunk belongs to
England, of course, but the root--ah! the root--Monsieur Valmont,
penetrated the soil from which this wine of the gods has been drawn.'
Then filling my glass and his own he cried:--
'To France, which my family left in the year 1066!'
I could not help laughing at his fervent ejaculation.
'1066! With William the Conqueror! That is a long time ago, Mr. Dacre.'
'In years perhaps; in feelings but a day. My forefathers came over to
steal, and, lord! how well they accomplished it. They stole the whole
country--something like a theft, say I--under that prince of robbers
whom you have well named the Conqueror. In our secret hearts we all
admire a great thief, and if not a great one, then an expert one, who
covers his tracks so perfectly that the hounds of justice are baffled
in attempting to follow them.
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