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"'Mad? Well, perhaps a little more so than other men,' said my friend, smiling.
"'What! you think all men crazy?'
"'I only know one sane man—my shoemaker. He is only mad once a week—on Monday, when he gets jolly drunk.'
"'Well, don't let us talk of madness any more. My father died mad, and I suppose that, sooner or later'
"'You must know,' said Teleny, interrupting me, 'that Briancourt has been in love with you for a long time.'
"'With me?'
"'Yes, but he thinks you dislike him.'
"'I never was remarkably fond of him.'
"'Now that I think it over, I believe that he would like to have us both together, so that we might form a kind of trinity of love and bliss.'
"'And you think he tried to bring it about in that way.'
"'In love and in war, every stratagem is good; and perhaps with him, as with the Jesuits, "the end justifies the means." Anyhow, forget this note completely, let it be like a mid-winter
