There his evil fame was unknown, and Gabrielle had welcomed him for her dead mother's sake; and in the small provincial city he had passed two hateful years, brooding upon the pleasures which were now denied to him and devising means to rehabilitate his shattered fortunes and recover some of his lost health.
Outwardly he had hitherto shown himself a model of a courteous gentleman and had lived almost an exemplary life in Morvaix, having put away from him with iron firmness the dissolute habits and evil practices of the old life in Paris. The desire for them burnt as strongly as ever in his blood, and his sole object in resisting it so strenuously was the hope of regaining such health, fortune and position as would enable him once more to indulge them freely.
But there was a flaw in his plans which threatened to ruin everything. He had ingratiated himself with the Governor, and the Duke, as keen a gambler as de Proballe himself, had won very heavy sums of money which could not be paid; and he had in this way obtained a hold over him which threatened to have critical consequences to all concerned.
The Duke had acted with deliberate intention. A man of reckless life and licentious nature, he had been fascinated by Gabrielle de Malincourt's beauty, and he had formed a scheme in regard to her which made her uncle's assistance of the utmost value and consequence.
De Proballe himself, despite his evil past and seared conscience, had at first refused indignantly to have any hand in the vile matter; but the Governor, never nice in his methods, had found means to over-ride this opposition; and then de Proballe sought to justify his act to himself by forming a counter-scheme against the Governor.
To further the plan, Gabrielle's uncle had concocted the story and fabricated the proofs supporting it, of
