councils and projects of M. de St. Louis were not so entirely rejected by him as he had wished the Duc to suppose.
He admired her; he did not approve her; he was not even sure that he liked her in any way; but he could not but see that here at last was the marriage which would bring the resurrection of all his fortunes.
Neither did he feel any of the humility which he had expressed to M. de St. Louis. Though she might be as cold as people all said she was, he had little fear, if he once endeavoured, that he would fail in making his way into her graces. With an Italian, love is too perfect a science for him to be uncertain of its results.
Besides, he believed that he detected a different character in her to what the world thought, and she also thought was her own. He thought men had all failed with her because they had not gone the right way to work. After all, to make a woman in love with you was easy enough. At least he had always found it so.
She was a woman, too, of unusual beauty, and of supreme grace, and a great alliance; her
