I call myself, at your service, plain Blair of Balmile.] '_Monsieur le Vicomte ou monsieur Bler' de Balmail_,' replied the newcomer, '_le nom n'y fait rien_, _et l'on connait vos beaux faits_.' [The name matters nothing, your gallant actions are known.] A few more ceremonies, and these three, sitting down together to the table, called for wine.

It was the happiness of Marie-Madeleine to wait unobserved upon the prince of her desires.

She poured the wine, he drank of it; and that link between them seemed to her, for the moment, close as a caress.

Though they lowered their tones, she surprised great names passing in their conversation, names of kings, the names of de Gesvre and Belle-Isle; and the man who dealt in these high matters, and she who was now coupled with him in her own thoughts, seemed to swim in mid air in a transfiguration.

Love is a crude core, but it has singular and far-reaching fringes; in that passionate attraction for the stranger that now swayed and mastered her, his harsh incomprehensible language, and these names of grandees in his talk, were each an element.
The Frenchman stayed not long, but it was plain he left behind him matter of much interest to his companions; they spoke together earnestly, their heads down, the woman of the wine-shop totally forgotten; and they were still so occupied when Paradou returned.
This man's love was unsleeping.