I drew
back from that with thanks, for I felt a quick hatred of myself that
I should take favours of the man who had moved for my destruction,
and to steal from me my promised wife. Yet it was my duty to live if
I could, to escape if that were possible, to use every means to foil
my enemies. It was all a game; why should I not accept advances at
my enemy's hands, and match dissimulation with dissimulation?
When I refused his arm, he smiled comically, and raised his
shoulders in deprecation.
"You forget your dignity, monsieur," I said presently as we
walked on, Gabord meeting us and lighting us through the passages;
"you voted me a villain, a spy, at my trial!"
"Technically and publicly, you are a spy, a vulgar criminal," he
replied; "privately, you are a foolish, blundering gentleman."
"A soldier, also, you will admit, who keeps his compact with his
enemy."
"Otherwise we should not breakfast together this morning," he
answered. "What difference would it make to this government if our
private matter had been dragged in? Technically, you still would
have been the spy.
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