Page:The Adventures of David Simple (1904).djvu/267

 to describe his amazement at hearing this; I thought there was something so innocent in his looks, that all my former love returned for him, and I began to fancy I had been in a dream: he at length got so far the better of me that I consented to make a stricter inquiry into this affair before we proceeded any further. "'We walked some time together, but every word Dumont spoke put me so much in mind of that wretch's voice who had deceived me, that I could hardly keep myself from bursting into fresh passions every moment; he perceived it, and kindly bore all my infirmities. "'As soon as we came home, we called Le Neuf; and the Chevalier asked him what villainy he could have contrived to impose so much on my understanding as to make me believe he had ever mentioned my name but with the greatest respect and friendship. He was too much hardened in his wickedness to recede from what he had begun, and said I was the best judge whether I knew Dumont's voice or no; and then pretended to be in the greatest astonishment that a man could in so short a time deny his own words to the face of the very person to whom he had spoken them. We all three stood looking at one another in great perplexity; and, for my part, I knew not which way to come at the truth. At last Dumont begged me to have patience till the next day, and by that time he did not doubt but he should make everything clear before me; to which, with much persuasion, I at last consented. "'The Chevalier knew Le Neuf used to go every night to walk in a solitary place, in order, as he supposed, to plot the mischiefs he intended to perpetrate: thither he followed him a little after sunset, and catching hold of him by the collar, swore that moment should be his last unless he confessed