Argosy, Vol. 1 (December 9, 1882) — page 224: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE QUEEN’S BODY GUARD. 217 For, after all, she was not much more than a child, either in years or ina knowledge of the world. Realizing thts, he felt 1t would be contemptible on his part to take advantage of his position and her loneliness to win her love. He resolved then and there that in the future his attitude towards the countess must be one of respectful solicitude, as that of a loyal servant; that he must avoid her company whenever possible ; and that anything like friendly intercourse for pleasure’s sake must be strictly tabooed. He told himself that he must always keep in sight the difference in their stations—that she was his employer and he, to all intents.and purposes, her servant. And even as he made this resolution, he felt a bitter pang, as the sudden and terrible truth dawned on him that he loved Marie de Villiers with an in- tensity of feeling that he had never dreamed was possible. He groaned in spirit as he thought of what it would cost him to conceal his passion from her. It never occurred to him that she might love him. k,ven if he had suspected that she really cared for him, he would have regarded it purely as girlish sentimentality, superinduced by the romantic manner in which they had been thrown together, and as such he was in honor bound not to take advantage of it. Besides, the girl was an heiress. This, together with the prominence of her family, made her one of the greatest matches in all France, and what right had he to step in, and by virtue of his position, spoil a future—giorious with its possibilities for power and influence—which she was as yet too young and inexperienced to comprehend. It was part of the innate modesty of the man that he should underestimate his own worth. His mental attitude in the whole affair was curious. It was as though he were playing a dual role, and as protector of the countess (for such he felt himself to be), he refused to look with favor on himself as the lover; for what was he but a penniless adventurer, after allP—though his motives were of the best, and his conscience was clear. So reasoned Henry Cottrell, till the solemn striking of a distant clock told him it was two in the morning, and time that he retired. As he wearily mounted to his room, he thought with a sigh that the gates of love were forever locked, and that his secret must go with him to the grave. But it often happens that the firmest resolution, and the best laid plans of men will be scattered to the four winds by a glance from a woman’s eye, or in the heat of sudden emotion. CHAPTER [X.—TueE Count HAs AN INSPIRATION. WHEN Count Rignault rode away, after his encounter with Cottrell, and his unsuccessful attempt to raise funds through his former tool, Anne Trevoir, he was in no very pleasant frame of mind. In all that dark, lonely ride to his home he had nothing to occupy his thoughts but the exasperating and humili- ating happenings of the last hour. He bitterly cursed the ill luck that*had brought Cottrell upon the scene; that had worked the change in Anne; and that had upset his carefully laid plans generally. In fact he cursed every- GONG OOO UN ceo