Chapter 37

It was rapid then: he didn't even try to fight against it. Joan became bait, and the game went merrily on. And if at times the remnant of a conscience pricked him for using his daughter in such a cause, he assuaged it by assuring himself that as she had no idea what she was doing, no blame could be attached to her. Which admirable piece of casuistry might have had something to be said for it: if it had not been built on a fundamental error. Exactly when Joan began to have her suspicions, it is difficult to say. The…