Doubtless with a man of less dogged character, or one more
amenable to reason, the Marquis would have known how to deal; but
the success which had hitherto rewarded St. Mesmin's course of
action had confirmed the young man in his belief that everything
was to be won by courage; so that the more the Marquis blustered
and threatened the more persistent the suitor showed himself.
Wherever Mademoiselle's presence was to be expected, St. Mesmin
appeared, dressed in the extreme of the fashion and wearing
either a favour made of her colours or a glove which he asserted
that she had given him. Throwing himself in her road on every
occasion, he expressed his passion by the most extravagant looks
and gestures; and protected from the shafts of ridicule alike by
his self-esteem and his prowess, did a hundred things that
rendered her conspicuous and must have covered another than
himself with inextinguishable laughter.
In these circumstances M. de Saintonge began to find that the
darts which glanced off his opponent's armour were making him
their butt; and that he, who had valued himself all his life on a
stately dignity and a pride: almost Spanish, was rapidly
becoming the laughing-stock of the Court.
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