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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13909 ***
+
+[Illustration: "_I plucked him off the duke and flung him on his back on
+the sands_,"]
+
+
+
+
+THE INDISCRETION OF THE DUCHESS
+
+_Being a Story Concerning Two Ladies, a Nobleman, and a Necklace_
+
+
+BY ANTHONY HOPE
+
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE PRISONER OF ZENDA," ETC.
+
+
+NEW YORK
+
+1894
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+     I. A MULTITUDE OF GOOD REASONS
+
+    II. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A SUPPER-TABLE
+
+   III. THE UNEXPECTED THAT ALWAYS HAPPENED
+
+    IV. THE DUCHESS DEFINES HER POSITION
+
+     V. A STRATEGIC RETREAT
+
+    VI. A HINT OF SOMETHING SERIOUS
+
+   VII. HEARD THROUGH THE DOOR
+
+  VIII. I FIND THAT I CARE
+
+    IX. AN UNPARALLELED INSULT
+
+     X. LEFT ON MY HANDS
+
+    XI. A VERY CLEVER SCHEME
+
+   XII. AS A MAN POSSESSED
+
+  XIII. A TIMELY TRUCE
+
+   XIV. FOR AN EMPTY BOX
+
+    XV. I CHOOSE MY WAY
+
+   XVI. THE INN NEAR PONTORSON
+
+  XVII. A RELUCTANT INTRUSION
+
+ XVIII. A STRANGE GOOD HUMOR
+
+   XIX. UNSUMMONED WITNESSES
+
+    XX. THE DUKE'S EPITAPH
+
+   XXI. A PASSING CARRIAGE
+
+  XXII. FROM SHADOW TO SUNSHINE
+
+
+
+
+THE INDISCRETION OF THE DUCHESS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A Multitude of Good Reasons.
+
+
+In accordance with many most excellent precedents, I might begin by
+claiming the sympathy due to an orphan alone in the world. I might even
+summon my unguided childhood and the absence of parental training to
+excuse my faults and extenuate my indiscretions. But the sympathy which I
+should thus gain would be achieved, I fear, by something very like false
+pretenses. For my solitary state sat very lightly upon me--the sad events
+which caused it being softened by the influence of time and habit--and had
+the recommendation of leaving me, not only free to manage my own life as I
+pleased, but also possessed of a competence which added power to my
+freedom. And as to the indiscretions--well, to speak it in all modesty and
+with a becoming consciousness of human frailty, I think that the undoubted
+indiscretions--that I may use no harder term--which were committed in the
+course of a certain fortnight were not for the most part of my doing or
+contriving. For throughout the transactions which followed on my arrival
+in France, I was rather the sport of circumstances than the originator of
+any scheme; and the prominent part which I played was forced upon me, at
+first by whimsical chance, and later on by the imperious calls made upon
+me by the position into which I was thrust.
+
+The same reason that absolves me from the need of excuse deprives me of
+the claim to praise; and, looking back, I am content to find nothing of
+which I need seriously be ashamed, and glad to acknowledge that, although
+Fate chose to put me through some queer paces, she was not in the end
+malevolent, and that, now the whole thing is finished, I have no cause to
+complain of the ultimate outcome of it. In saying that, I speak purely and
+solely for myself. There is one other for whom I might perhaps venture to
+say the same without undue presumption, but I will not; while for the
+rest, it must suffice for me to record their fortunes, without entering on
+the deep and grave questions which are apt to suggest themselves to anyone
+who considers with a thoughtful mind the characters and the lives of those
+with whom he is brought in contact on his way through the world. The good
+in wicked folk, the depths in shallow folk, the designs of haphazard
+minds, the impulsive follies of the cunning--all these exist, to be dimly
+discerned by any one of us, to be ignored by none save those who are
+content to label a man with the name of one quality and ignore all else in
+him, but to be traced, fully understood, and intelligently shown forth
+only by the few who are gifted to read and expound the secrets of human
+hearts. That is a gift beyond my endowment, and fitted for a task too
+difficult for my hand. Frankly, I did not, always and throughout, discern
+as clearly as I could desire the springs on which the conduct of my
+fellow-actors turned; and the account I have given of their feelings and
+their motives must be accepted merely as my reading of them, and for what,
+as such, it is worth. The actual facts speak for themselves. Let each man
+read them as he will; and if he does not indorse all my views, yet he
+will, I venture to think, be recompensed by a story which even the
+greatest familiarity and long pondering has not robbed of all its interest
+for me. But then I must admit that I have reasons which no one else can
+have for following with avidity every stage and every development in the
+drama, and for seeking to discern now what at the time was dark and
+puzzling to me.
+
+The thing began in the most ordinary way in the world--or perhaps that is
+too strongly put. The beginning was ordinary indeed, and tame, compared
+with the sequel. Yet even the beginning had a flavor of the unusual about
+it, strong enough to startle a man so used to a humdrum life and so
+unversed in anything out of the common as I. Here, then, is the beginning:
+
+One morning, as I sat smoking my after-breakfast cigar in my rooms in St.
+James' Street, my friend Gustave de Berensac rushed in. His bright brown
+eyes were sparkling, his mustache seemed twisted up more gayly and
+triumphantly than ever, and his manner was redolent of high spirits. Yet
+it was a dull, somber, misty morning, for all that the month was July and
+another day or two would bring August. But Gustave was a merry fellow,
+though always (as I had occasion to remember later on) within the limits
+of becoming mirth--as to which, to be sure, there may be much difference
+of opinion.
+
+"Shame!" he cried, pointing at me. "You are a man of leisure, nothing
+keeps you here; yet you stay in this _bouillon_ of an atmosphere, with
+France only twenty miles away over the sea!"
+
+"They have fogs in France too," said I. "But whither tends your
+impassioned speech, my good friend? Have you got leave?"
+
+Gustave was at this time an extra secretary at the French Embassy in
+London.
+
+"Leave? Yes, I have leave--and, what is more, I have a charming
+invitation."
+
+"My congratulations," said I.
+
+"An invitation which includes a friend," he continued, sitting down. "Ah,
+you smile! You mean that is less interesting?"
+
+"A man may smile and smile, and not be a villain," said I. "I meant
+nothing of the sort. I smiled at your exhilaration--nothing more, on the
+word of a moral Englishman."
+
+Gustave grimaced; then he waved his cigarette in the air, exclaiming:
+
+"She is charming, my dear Gilbert!"
+
+"The exhilaration is explained."
+
+"There is not a word to be said against her," he added hastily.
+
+"That does not depress me," said I. "But why should she invite me?"
+
+"She doesn't invite you; she invites me to bring--anybody!"
+
+"Then she is _ennuyée_, I presume?"
+
+"Who would not be, placed as she is? He is inhuman!"
+
+"_M. le mari?_"
+
+"You are not so stupid, after all! He forbids her to see a single soul; we
+must steal our visit, if we go."
+
+"He is away, then?"
+
+"The kind government has sent him on a special mission of inquiry to
+Algeria. Three cheers for the government!"
+
+"By all means," said I. "When are you going to approach the subject of who
+these people are?"
+
+"You will not trust my discernment?"
+
+"Alas, no! You are too charitable--to one half of humanity."
+
+"Well, I will tell you. She is a great friend of my sister's--they were
+brought up in the same convent; she is also a good comrade of mine."
+
+"A good comrade?"
+
+"That is just it; for I, you know, suffer hopelessly elsewhere."
+
+"What, Lady Cynthia still?"
+
+"Still!" echoed Gustave with a tragic air. But he recovered in a moment.
+"Lady Cynthia being, however, in Switzerland, there is no reason why I
+should not go to Normandy."
+
+"Oh, Normandy?"
+
+"Precisely. It is there that the duchess--"
+
+"Oho! The duchess?"
+
+"Is residing in retirement in a small _château_, alone save for my
+sister's society."
+
+"And a servant or two, I presume?"
+
+"You are just right, a servant or two; for he is most stingy to her
+(though not, they say, to everybody), and gives her nothing when he is
+away."
+
+"Money is a temptation, you see."
+
+"_Mon Dieu_, to have none is a greater!" and Gustave shook his head
+solemnly.
+
+"The duchess of what?" I asked patiently.
+
+"You will have heard of her," he said, with a proud smile. Evidently he
+thought that the lady was a trump card. "The Duchess of Saint-Maclou."
+
+I laid down my cigar, maintaining, however, a calm demeanor.
+
+"Aha!" said Gustave. "You will come, my friend?"
+
+I could not deny that Gustave had a right to his little triumph; for a
+year ago, when the duchess had visited England with her husband, I had
+received an invitation to meet her at the Embassy. Unhappily, the death of
+a relative (whom I had never seen) occurring the day before, I had been
+obliged to post off to Ireland, and pay proper respect by appearing at the
+funeral. When I returned the duchess had gone, and Gustave had,
+half-ironically, consoled my evident annoyance by telling me that he had
+given such a description of me to his friend that she shared my sorrow,
+and had left a polite message to that effect. That I was not much consoled
+needs no saying. That I required consolation will appear not unnatural
+when I say that the duchess was one of the most brilliant and well-known
+persons in French society; yes, and outside France also. For she was a
+cosmopolitan. Her father was French, her mother American; and she had
+passed two or three years in England before her marriage. She was very
+pretty, and, report said, as witty as a pretty woman need be. Once she had
+been rich, but the money was swallowed up by speculation; she and her
+father (the mother was dead) were threatened with such reduction of means
+as seemed to them penury; and the marriage with the duke had speedily
+followed--the precise degree of unwillingness on the part of Mlle. de
+Beville being a disputed point. Men said she was forced into the marriage,
+women very much doubted it; the lady herself gave no indication, and her
+father declared that the match was one of affection. All this I had heard
+from common friends; only a series of annoying accidents had prevented the
+more interesting means of knowledge which acquaintance with the duchess
+herself would have afforded.
+
+"You have always," said Gustave, "wanted to know her."
+
+I relit my cigar and puffed thoughtfully. It was true that I had rather
+wished to know her.
+
+"My belief is," he continued, "that though she says 'anybody,' she means
+you. She knows what friends we are; she knows you are eager to be among
+her friends; she would guess that I should ask you first."
+
+I despise and hate a man who is not open to flattery: he is a hard,
+morose, distrustful, cynical being, doubting the honesty of his friends
+and the worth of his own self. I leant an ear to Gustave's suggestion.
+
+"What she would not guess," he said, throwing his cigarette into the
+fireplace and rising to his feet, "is that you would refuse when I did ask
+you. What shall be the reason? Shocked, are you? Or afraid?"
+
+Gustave spoke as though nothing could either shock or frighten him.
+
+"I'm merely considering whether it will amuse me," I returned. "How long
+are we asked for?"
+
+"That depends on diplomatic events."
+
+"The mission to Algeria?"
+
+"Why, precisely."
+
+I put my hands in my pockets.
+
+"I should certainly be glad, my dear Gustave," said I, "to meet your
+sister again."
+
+"We take the boat for Cherbourg to-morrow evening!" he cried triumphantly,
+slapping me on the back. "And, in my sister's name, many thanks! I will
+make it clear to the duchess why you come."
+
+"No need to make bad blood between them like that," I laughed.
+
+In fine, I was pleased to go; and, on reflection, there was no reason why
+I should not go. I said as much to Gustave.
+
+"Seeing that everybody is going out of town and the place will be a desert
+in a week, I'm certainly not wanted here just now."
+
+"And seeing that the duke is gone to Algeria, we certainly are wanted
+there," said Gustave.
+
+"And a man should go where he is wanted," said I.
+
+"And a man is wanted," said Gustave, "where a lady bids him come."
+
+"It would," I cried, "be impolite not to go."
+
+"It would be dastardly. Besides, think how you will enjoy the memory of
+it!"
+
+"The memory?" I repeated, pausing in my eager walk up and down.
+
+"It will be a sweet memory," he said.
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"Because, my friend, it is prodigiously unwise--for you."
+
+"And not for you?"
+
+"Why, no. Lady Cynthia--"
+
+He broke off, content to indicate the shield that protected him. But it
+was too late to draw back.
+
+"Let it be as unwise," said I, "as it will--"
+
+"Or as the duke is," put in Gustave, with a knowing twinkle in his eye.
+
+"Yet it is a plan as delightful--"
+
+"As the duchess is," said Gustave.
+
+And so, for all the excellent reasons which may be collected from the
+foregoing conversation,--and if carefully tabulated they would, I am
+persuaded, prove as numerous as weighty,--I went.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+The Significance of a Supper-Table.
+
+
+The Aycons of Aycon Knoll have always been a hard-headed, levelheaded
+race. We have had no enthusiasms, few ambitions, no illusions, and not
+many scandals. We keep our heads on our shoulders and our purses in our
+pockets. We do not rise very high, but we have never sunk. We abide at the
+Knoll from generation to generation, deeming our continued existence in
+itself a service to the state and an honor to the house. We think more
+highly of ourselves than we admit, and allow ourselves to smile when we
+walk in to dinner behind the new nobility. We grow just a little richer
+with every decade, and add a field or two to our domains once in five
+years. The gaps made by falling rents we have filled by judicious
+purchases of land near rising towns; and we have no doubt that there lies
+before us a future as long and prosperous as our past has been. We are not
+universally popular, and we see in the fact a tribute to our valuable
+qualities.
+
+I venture to mention these family virtues and characteristics because it
+has been thought in some quarters that I displayed them but to a very
+slight degree in the course of the expedition on which I was now embarked.
+The impression is a mistaken one. As I have said before, I did nothing
+that was not forced upon me. Any of my ancestors would, I am sure, have
+done the same, had they chanced to be thrown under similar circumstances
+into the society of Mme. de Saint-Maclou and of the other persons whom I
+was privileged to meet; and had those other persons happened to act in the
+manner in which they did when I fell in with them.
+
+Gustave maintained his gayety and good spirits unabated through the trials
+of our voyage to Cherbourg. The mild mystery that attended our excursion
+was highly to his taste. He insisted on our coming without servants. He
+persuaded me to leave no address; obliged to keep himself within touch of
+the Embassy, he directed letters to be sent to Avranches, where, he
+explained, he could procure them; for, as he thought it safe to disclose
+when a dozen miles of sea separated us from the possibility of curious
+listeners, the house to which we were bound stood about ten miles distant
+from that town, in a retired and somewhat desolate bit of country lining
+the seashore.
+
+"My sister says it is the most _triste_ place in the world," said he; "but
+we shall change all that when we arrive."
+
+There was nothing to prevent our arriving very soon to relieve Mlle. de
+Berensac's depression, for the middle of the next day found us at
+Avranches, and we spent the afternoon wandering about somewhat aimlessly
+and staring across the bay at the mass of Mont St. Michel. Directly
+beneath us as we stood on the hill, and lying in a straight line with the
+Mount, there was a large square white house, on the very edge of the
+stretching sand. We were told that it was a convent.
+
+"But the whole place is no livelier than one," said I, yawning. "My dear
+fellow, why don't we go on?"
+
+"It is right for you to see this interesting town," answered Gustave
+gravely, but with a merry gleam in his eye. "However, I have ordered a
+carriage, so be patient."
+
+"For what time?"
+
+"Nine o'clock, when we have dined."
+
+"We are to get there in the dark, then?"
+
+"What reason is there against that?" he asked, smiling.
+
+"None," said I; and I went to pack up my bag.
+
+In my room I chanced to find a _femme-de-chambre_. To her I put a question
+or two as to the gentry of the neighborhood. She rattled me off a few
+distinguished names, and ended:
+
+"The duke of Saint-Maclou has also a small _château_."
+
+"Is he there now?" I asked.
+
+"The duchess only, sir," she answered. "Ah, they tell wonderful stories of
+her!"
+
+"Do they? Pray, of what kind?"
+
+"Oh, not to her harm, sir; or, at least, not exactly, though to simple
+country-folk--"
+
+The national shrug was an appropriate ending.
+
+"And the duke?"
+
+"He is a good man," she answered earnestly, "and a very clever man. He is
+very highly thought of at Paris, sir."
+
+I had hoped, secretly, to hear that he was a villain; but he was a good
+man. It was a scurvy trick to play on a good man. Well, there was no help
+for it. I packed my bag with some dawning misgivings; the chambermaid,
+undisturbed by my presence, went on rubbing the table with some
+strong-smelling furniture polish.
+
+"At least," she observed, as though there had been no pause, "he gives
+much to the church and to the poor."
+
+"It may be repentance," said I, looking up with a hopeful air.
+
+"It is possible, sir."
+
+"Or," cried I, with a smile, "hypocrisy?"
+
+The chambermaid's shake of her head refused to accept this idea; but my
+conscience, fastening on it, found rest. I hesitated no longer. The man
+was a cunning hypocrite. I would go on cheerfully, secure that he deserved
+all the bamboozling which the duchess and my friend Gustave might prepare
+for him.
+
+At nine o'clock, as Gustave had arranged, we started in a heavy carriage
+drawn by two great white horses and driven by a stolid fat hostler. Slowly
+we jogged along under the stars, St. Michel being our continual companion
+on the right hand, as we followed the road round the bay. When we had gone
+five or six miles, we turned suddenly inland. There were banks on each
+side of the road now, and we were going uphill; for rising out of the
+plain there was a sudden low spur of higher ground.
+
+"Is the house at the top?" I asked Gustave.
+
+"Just under the top," said he.
+
+"I shall walk," said I.
+
+The fact is, I had grown intolerably impatient of our slow jog, which had
+now sunk to a walk.
+
+We jumped out and strode on ahead, soon distancing our carriage, and
+waking echoes with our merry talk.
+
+"I rather wonder they have not come to meet us," said Gustave. "See, there
+is the house."
+
+A sudden turn in the road had brought us in sight of it. It was a rather
+small modern Gothic _château_. It nestled comfortably below the hill,
+which rose very steeply immediately behind it. The road along which we
+were approaching appeared to afford the only access, and no other house
+was visible. But, desolate as the spot certainly was, the house itself
+presented a gay appearance, for there were lights in every window from
+ground to roof.
+
+"She seems to have company," I observed.
+
+"It is that she expects us," answered Gustave. "This illumination is in
+our honor."
+
+"Come on," said I, quickening my pace; and Gustave burst out laughing.
+
+"I knew you would catch fire when once I got you started!" he cried.
+
+Suddenly a voice struck on my ear--a clear, pleasant voice:
+
+"Was he slow to catch fire, my dear Gustave?"
+
+I started. Gustave looked round.
+
+"It is she," he said. "Where is she?"
+
+"Was he slow to catch fire?" asked the voice again. "Well, he has but just
+come near the flame"--and a laugh followed the words.
+
+"Slow to light is long to burn," said I, turning to the bank on the left
+side of the road, for it was thence that the voice came.
+
+A moment later a little figure in white darted down into the road,
+laughing and panting. She seized Gustave's hand.
+
+"I ran so hard to meet you!" she cried.
+
+"And have you brought Claire with you?" he asked.
+
+"Present your friend to me," commanded the duchess, as though she had not
+heard his question.
+
+Did I permit myself to guess at such things, I should have guessed the
+duchess to be about twenty-five years old. She was not tall; her hair was
+a dark brown, and the color in her cheeks rich but subdued. She moved with
+extraordinary grace and agility, and seemed never at rest. The one term of
+praise (if it be one, which I sometimes incline to doubt) that I have
+never heard applied to her is--dignified.
+
+"It is most charming of you to come, Mr. Aycon," said she. "I've heard so
+much of you, and you'll be so terribly dull!"
+
+"With yourself, madame, and Mlle. de Berensac--"
+
+"Oh, of course you must say that!" she interrupted. "But come along,
+supper is ready. How delightful to have supper again! I'm never in good
+enough spirits to have supper when I'm alone. You'll be terribly
+uncomfortable, gentlemen. The whole household consists of an old man and
+five women--counting myself."
+
+"And are they all--?" began Gustave.
+
+"Discreet?" she asked, interrupting again. "Oh, they will not tell the
+truth! Never fear, my dear Gustave!"
+
+"What news of the duke?" asked he, as we began to walk, the duchess
+stepping a little ahead of us.
+
+"Oh, the best," said she, with a nod over her shoulder. "None, you know.
+That's one of your proverbs, Mr. Aycon?"
+
+"Even a proverb is true sometimes," I ventured to remark.
+
+We reached the house and passed through the door, which stood wide open.
+Crossing the hall, we found ourselves in a small square room, furnished
+with rose-colored hangings. Here supper was spread. Gustave walked up to
+the table. The duchess flung herself into an armchair. She had taken her
+handkerchief out of her pocket, and she held it in front of her lips and
+seemed to be biting it. Her eyebrows were raised, and her face displayed a
+comical mixture of amusement and apprehension. A glance of her eyes at me
+invited me to share the perilous jest, in which Gustave's demeanor
+appeared to bear the chief part.
+
+Gustave stood by the table, regarding it with a puzzled air.
+
+"One--two--three!" he exclaimed aloud, counting the covers laid.
+
+The duchess said nothing, but her eyebrows mounted a little higher, till
+they almost reached her clustering hair.
+
+"One--two--three?" repeated Gustave, in unmistakable questioning. "Does
+Claire remain upstairs?"
+
+Appeal--amusement--fright--shame--triumph--chased one another across the
+eyes of Mme. de Saint-Maclou: each made so swift an appearance, so swift
+an exit, that they seemed to blend in some peculiar personal emotion
+proper to the duchess and to no other woman born. And she bit the
+handkerchief harder than ever. For the life of me I couldn't help it; I
+began to laugh; the duchess' face disappeared altogether behind the
+handkerchief.
+
+"Do you mean to say Claire's not here?" cried Gustave, turning on her
+swiftly and accusingly.
+
+The head behind the handkerchief was shaken, first timidly, then more
+emphatically, and a stifled voice vouchsafed the news:
+
+"She left three days ago."
+
+Gustave and I looked at one another. There was a pause. At last I drew a
+chair back from the table, and said:
+
+"If madame is ready--"
+
+The duchess whisked her handkerchief away and sprang up. She gave one look
+at Gustave's grave face, and then, bursting into a merry laugh, caught me
+by the arm, crying:
+
+"Isn't it fun, Mr. Aycon? There's nobody but me! Isn't it fun?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The Unexpected that Always Happened.
+
+
+Everything depends on the point of view and is rich in varying aspects. A
+picture is sublime from one corner of the room, a daub from another; a
+woman's full face may be perfect, her profile a disappointment; above all,
+what you admire in yourself becomes highly distasteful in your neighbor.
+The moral is, I suppose, Tolerance; or if not that, something else which
+has escaped me.
+
+When the duchess said that "it"--by which she meant the whole position of
+affairs--was "fun," I laughed; on the other hand, Gustave de Berensac,
+after one astonished stare, walked to the hall door.
+
+"Where is my carriage?" we heard him ask.
+
+"It has started on the way back three, minutes ago, sir."
+
+"Fetch it back."
+
+"Sir! The driver will gallop down the hill; he could not be overtaken."
+
+"How fortunate!" said I.
+
+"I do not see," observed Mme. de Saint-Maclou, "that it makes all that
+difference."
+
+She seemed hurt at the serious way in which Gustave took her joke.
+
+"If I had told the truth, you wouldn't have come," she said in
+justification.
+
+"Not another word is necessary," said I, with a bow.
+
+"Then let us sup," said the duchess, and she took the armchair at the head
+of the table.
+
+We began to eat and drink, serving ourselves. Presently Gustave entered,
+stood regarding us for a moment, and then flung himself into the third
+chair and poured out a glass of wine. The duchess took no notice of him.
+
+"Mlle, de Berensac was called away?" I suggested.
+
+"She was called away," answered the duchess.
+
+"Suddenly?"
+
+"No," said the duchess, her eyes again full of complicated expressions. I
+laughed. Then she broke out in a plaintive cry: "Oh! were you ever
+dying--dying--dying of weariness?"
+
+Gustave made no reply; the frown on his face persisted.
+
+"Isn't it a pity," I asked, "to wreck a pleasant party for the sake of a
+fine distinction? The presence of Mlle. de Berensac would have infinitely
+increased our pleasure; but how would it have diminished our crime?"
+
+"I wish I had known you sooner, Mr. Aycon," said the duchess; "then I
+needn't have asked him at all."
+
+I bowed, but I was content with things as they were. The duchess sat with
+the air of a child who has been told that she is naughty, but declines to
+accept the statement. I was puzzled at the stern morality exhibited by my
+friend Gustave. His next remark threw some light on his feelings.
+
+"Heavens! if it became known, what would be thought?" he demanded
+suddenly.
+
+"If one thinks of what is thought," said the duchess with a shrug, "one
+is--"
+
+"A fool," said I, "or--a lover!"
+
+"Ah!" cried the duchess, a smile coming on her lips. "If it is that, I'll
+forgive you, my dear Gustave. Whose good opinion do you fear to lose?"
+
+"I write," said Gustave, with a rhetorical gesture, "to say that I am
+going to the house of some friends to meet my sister!"
+
+"Oh, you write?" we murmured.
+
+"My sister writes to say she is not there!"
+
+"Oh, she writes?" we murmured again.
+
+"And it is thought--"
+
+"By whom?" asked the duchess.
+
+"By Lady Cynthia Chillingdon," said I.
+
+"That it is a trick--a device--a deceit!" continued poor Gustave.
+
+"It was decidedly indiscreet of you to come," said the duchess
+reprovingly. "How was I to know about Lady Cynthia? If I had known about
+Lady Cynthia, I would not have asked you; I would have asked Mr. Aycon
+only. Or perhaps you also, Mr. Aycon--"
+
+"Madame," said I, "I am alone in the world."
+
+"Where has Claire gone to?" asked Gustave.
+
+"Paris," pouted the duchess.
+
+Gustave rose, flinging his napkin on the table.
+
+"I shall follow her to-morrow," he said. "I suppose you'll go back to
+England, Gilbert?"
+
+If Gustave left us, it was my unhesitating resolve to return to England.
+
+"I suppose I shall," said I.
+
+"I suppose you must," said the duchess ruefully. "Oh, isn't it
+exasperating? I had planned it all so delightfully!"
+
+"If you had told the truth--" began Gustave.
+
+"I should not have had a preacher to supper," said the duchess sharply;
+then she fell to laughing again.
+
+"Is Mlle. de Berensac irrecoverable?" I suggested.
+
+"Why, yes. She has gone to take her turn of attendance on your rich old
+aunt, Gustave."
+
+I think that there was a little malice in the duchess' way of saying this.
+
+There seemed nothing more to be done. The duchess herself did not propose
+to defy conventionality to the extent of inviting me to stay. To do her
+justice, as soon as the inevitable was put before her, she accepted it
+with good grace, and, after supper, busied herself in discovering the time
+and manner in which her guests might pursue their respective journeys. I
+may be flattering myself, but I thought that she displayed a melancholy
+satisfaction on discovering that Gustave de Berensac must leave at ten
+o'clock the next morning, whereas I should be left to kick my heels in
+idleness at Cherbourg if I set out before five in the afternoon.
+
+"Oh, you can spend the time _en route_," said Gustave. "It will be
+better."
+
+The duchess looked at me; I looked at the duchess.
+
+"My dear Gustave," said I, "you are very considerate. You could not do
+more if I also were in love with Lady Cynthia."
+
+"Nor," said the duchess, "if I were quite unfit to be spoken to."
+
+"If my remaining till the afternoon will not weary the duchess--" said I.
+
+"The duchess will endure it," said she, with a nod and a smile.
+
+Thus it was settled, a shake of the head conveying Gustave's judgment. And
+soon after, Mme. de Saint-Maclou bade us good-night. Tired with my
+journey, and (to tell the truth) a little out of humor with my friend, I
+was not long in seeking my bed. At the top of the stairs a group of three
+girls were gossiping; one of them handed me a candle and flung open the
+door of my room with a roguish smile on her broad good-tempered face.
+
+"One of the greatest virtues of women," said I pausing on the threshold,
+"is fidelity."
+
+"We are devoted to Mme. la Duchesse," said the girl.
+
+"Another, hardly behind it, is discretion," I continued.
+
+"Madame inculcates it on us daily," said she. I took out a napoleon.
+
+"Ladies," said I, placing the napoleon in the girl's hand, "I am obliged
+for your kind attentions. Good-night!" and I shut the door on the sound of
+a pleased, excited giggling. I love to hear such sounds; they make me
+laugh myself, for joy that this old world, in spite of everything, holds
+so much merriment; and to their jovial lullaby I fell asleep,
+
+Moreover--the duchess teaching discretion! There can have been nothing
+like it since Baby Charles and Steenie conversed within the hearing of
+King James! But, then discretion has two meanings--whereof the one is "Do
+it not," and the other "Tell it not." Considering of this ambiguity, I
+acquitted the duchess of hypocrisy.
+
+At ten o'clock the next morning we got rid of my dear friend Gustave de
+Berensac. Candor compels me to put the statement in that form; for the
+gravity which had fallen upon him the night before endured till the
+morning, and he did not flinch from administering something very like a
+lecture to his hostess. His last words were an invitation to me to get
+into the carriage and start with him. When I suavely declined, he told me
+that I should regret it. It comforts me to think that his prophecy, though
+more than once within an ace of the most ample fulfillment, yet in the end
+was set at naught by the events which followed.
+
+Gustave rolled down the hill, the duchess sighed relief.
+
+"Now," said she, "we can enjoy ourselves fora few hours, Mr. Aycon. And
+after that--solitude!"
+
+I was really very sorry for the duchess. Evidently society and gayety were
+necessary as food and air to her, and her churl of a husband denied them.
+My opportunity was short, but I laid myself out to make the most of it. I
+could give her nothing more than a pleasant memory, but I determined to do
+that.
+
+We spent the greater part of the day in a ramble through the woods that
+lined the slopes of the hill behind the house; and all through the hours
+the duchess chatted about herself, her life, her family--and then about
+the duke. If the hints she gave were to be trusted, her husband deserved
+little consideration at her hands, and, at the worst, the plea of reprisal
+might offer some excuse for her, if she had need of one. But she denied
+the need, and here I was inclined to credit her. For with me, as with
+Gustave de Berensac before the shadow of Lady Cynthia came between, she
+was, most distinctly, a "good comrade." Sentiment made no appearance in
+our conversation, and, as the day ruthlessly wore on, I regretted honestly
+that I must go in deference to a conventionality which seemed, in this
+case at least--Heaven forbid that I should indulge in general theories--to
+mask no reality. Yet she was delightful by virtue of the vitality in her;
+and the woods echoed again and again with our laughter.
+
+At four o'clock we returned sadly to the house, where the merry girls
+busied themselves in preparing a repast for me. The duchess insisted on
+sharing my meal.
+
+"I shall go supperless to bed to-night," said she; and we sat down glum as
+two children going back to school.
+
+Suddenly there was a commotion outside; the girls were talking to one
+another in rapid eager tones. The duchess raised her head, listening. Then
+she turned to me, asking:
+
+"Can you hear what they say?"
+
+"I can distinguish nothing except 'Quick, quick!'"
+
+As I spoke the door was thrown open, and two rushed in, the foremost
+saying:
+
+"Again, madame, again!"
+
+"Impossible!" exclaimed the duchess, starting up.
+
+"No, it is true. Jean was out, snaring a rabbit, and caught sight of the
+carriage."
+
+"What carriage? Whose carriage?" I asked.
+
+"Why, my husband's," said the duchess, quite calmly. "It is a favorite
+trick of his to surprise us. But Algeria! We thought we were safe with
+Algeria. He must travel underground like a mole, Suzanne, or we should
+have heard."
+
+"Oh, one hears nothing here!"
+
+"And what," said the duchess, "are we to do with Mr. Aycon?"
+
+"I can solve that," I observed. "I'm off."
+
+"But he'll see you!" cried the girl. "He is but a half-mile off."
+
+"Mr. Aycon could take the side-path," said the duchess.
+
+"The duke would see him before he reached it," said the girl. "He would be
+in sight for nearly fifty yards."
+
+"Couldn't I hide in the bushes?" I asked.
+
+"I hate anything that looks suspicious," remarked the duchess, still quite
+calm; "and if he happened to see you, it would look rather suspicious! And
+he has got eyes like a cat's for anything of that sort."
+
+There was no denying that it would look suspicious if I were caught hiding
+in the bushes. I sat silent, having no other suggestion to make.
+
+Suzanne, with a readiness not born, I hope, of practice, came to the
+rescue with a clever suggestion.
+
+"The English groom whom madame dismissed a week ago--" said she. "Why
+should not the gentleman pass as the groom? The man would not take his old
+clothes away, for he had bought new ones, and they are still here. The
+gentleman would put them on and walk past--_voilà_."
+
+"Can you look like a groom?" asked the duchess. "If he speaks to you, make
+your French just a _little_ worse"--and she smiled.
+
+They were all so calm and businesslike that it would have seemed
+disobliging and absurd to make difficulties.
+
+"We can send your luggage soon, you know," said the duchess. "You had
+better hide Mr. Aycon's luggage in your room, Suzanne. Really, I am afraid
+you ought to be getting ready, Mr. Aycon."
+
+The point of view again! By virtue of the duchess' calmness and Suzanne's
+cool readiness, the proceeding seemed a most ordinary one. Five minutes
+later I presented myself to the duchess, dressed in a villainous suit of
+clothes, rather too tight for me, and wearing a bad hat rakishly cocked
+over one eye. The duchess surveyed me with great curiosity.
+
+"Fortunately the duke is not a very clever man," said she. "Oh, by the
+way, your name's George Sampson, and you come from Newmarket; and you are
+leaving because you took more to drink than was good for you. Good-by, Mr.
+Aycon. I do hope that we shall meet again under pleasanter circumstances."
+
+"They could not be pleasanter--but they might be more prolonged," said I.
+
+"It was so good of you to come," she said, pressing my hand.
+
+"The carriage is but a quarter of a mile off!" cried Suzanne warningly.
+
+"How very annoying it is! I wish to Heaven the Algerians had eaten the
+duke!"
+
+"I shall not forget my day here," I assured her.
+
+"You won't? It's charming of you. Oh, how dull it will be now! It only
+wanted the arrival of--Well, good-by!"
+
+And with a final and long pressure of the duchess' hand, I, in the garb
+and personality of George Sampson, dismissed for drunkenness, walked out
+of the gate of the _château_.
+
+"One thing," I observed to myself as I started, "would seem highly
+probable--and that is, that this sort of thing has happened before."
+
+The idea did not please me. I like to do things first.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+The Duchess Defines Her Position.
+
+
+I walked on at a leisurely pace; the heavy carriage was very near the top
+of the hill. In about three minutes' time we met. There sat alone in the
+carriage a tall dark man, with a puffy white face, a heavy mustache, and
+stern cold eyes. He was smoking a cigar. I plucked my hat from my head and
+made as if to pass by.
+
+"Who's this?" he called out, stopping the carriage.
+
+I began to recite my lesson in stumbling French.
+
+"Why, what are you? Oh, you're English! Then in Heaven's name, speak
+English--not that gabble." And then he repeated his order, "Speak
+English," in English, and continued in that language, which he spoke with
+stiff formal correctness.
+
+He heard my account of myself with unmoved face.
+
+"Have you any writings--any testimonials?" he asked.
+
+"No, my lord," I stammered, addressing him in style I thought most natural
+to my assumed character.
+
+"That's a little curious, isn't it? You become intoxicated everywhere,
+perhaps?"
+
+"I've never been intoxicated in my life, my lord," said I, humbly but
+firmly.
+
+"Then you dispute the justice of your dismissal?"
+
+"Yes, my lord." I thought such protest due to my original.
+
+He looked at me closely, smoking his cigar the while.
+
+"You made love to the chambermaids?" he asked suddenly.
+
+"No, my lord. One evening, my lord, it was very hot, and--and the wine, my
+lord--"
+
+"Then you were intoxicated?"
+
+I fumbled with my hat, praying that the fellow would move on.
+
+"What servants are there?" he asked, pointing to the house.
+
+"Four maids, my lord, and old Jean."
+
+Again he meditated; then he said sharply:
+
+"Have you ever waited at table?"
+
+We have all, I suppose, waited at table--in one sense. Perhaps that may
+save my remark from untruth.
+
+"Now and then, my lord," I answered, wondering what he would be at.
+
+"I have guests arriving to-morrow," he said. "My man comes with them, but
+the work will perhaps be too much for him. Are you willing to stay and
+help? I will pay you the same wages."
+
+I could have laughed in his face; but duty seemed to point to seriousness.
+
+"I'm very sorry, my lord--" I began.
+
+"What, have you got another place?"
+
+"No, my lord; not exactly."
+
+"Then get up on the front seat. Or do you want your employers to say you
+are disobliging as well as drunken?"
+
+"But the lady sent me--"
+
+"You may leave that to me. Come, jump up! Don't keep me waiting!"
+
+Doubtfully I stood in the road, the duke glaring at me with impatient
+anger. Then he leaned forward and said:
+
+"You are curiously reluctant, sir, to earn your living. I don't understand
+it. I must make some inquiries about you."
+
+I detected suspicion dawning in his eyes. He was a great man; I did not
+know what hindrances he might not be able to put in the way of my
+disappearance. And what would happen if he made his inquiries? Inquiries
+might mean searching, and I carried a passport in the name of Gilbert
+Aycon.
+
+Such share had prudence; the rest must be put down to the sudden impulse
+of amusement which seized me. It was but for a day or two! Then I could
+steal away. Meanwhile what would not the face of the duchess say, when I
+rode up on the front seat!
+
+"I--I was afraid I should not give satisfaction," I muttered.
+
+"You probably won't," said he. "I take you from necessity, not choice, my
+friend. Up with you!"
+
+And I got up beside the driver--not, luckily, the one who had brought
+Gustave de Berensac and myself the day before--and the carriage resumed
+its slow climb up the hill.
+
+We stopped at the door. I jumped down and assisted my new master.
+
+The door was shut. Nobody was to be seen; evidently we were not expected.
+The duke smiled sardonically, opened the door and walked in, I just
+behind. Suzanne was sweeping the floor. With one glance at the duke and
+myself, she sprang back, with a cry of most genuine surprise.
+
+"Oh, you're mighty surprised, aren't you?" sneered the duke. "Old Jean
+didn't scuttle away to tell you then? You keep a good watch, young woman.
+Your mistress' orders, eh?"
+
+Still Suzanne stared--and at me. The duke chuckled.
+
+"Yes, he's back again," said he, "so you must make the best of it, my
+girl. Where's the duchess?"
+
+"In--in--in her sitting-room, M. le Duc."
+
+"'In--in--in,'" he echoed mockingly. Then he stepped swiftly across the
+hall and flung the door suddenly open. I believe he thought that he really
+had surprised Jean's slow aged scamper ahead of him.
+
+"Silence for your life!" I had time to whisper to Suzanne; and then I
+followed him. There might be more "fun" to come.
+
+The duchess was sitting with a book in her hand. I was half-hidden by the
+duke, and she did not see me. She looked up, smiled, yawned, and held out
+her hand.
+
+"I hardly expected you, Armand," said she. "I thought you were in
+Algeria."
+
+Anybody would have been annoyed; there is no doubt that the Duke of
+Saint-Maclou was very much annoyed.
+
+"You don't seem overjoyed at the surprise," said he gruffly.
+
+"You are always surprising me," she answered, lifting her eyebrows.
+
+Suddenly he turned round, saying "Sampson!" and then turned to her,
+adding:
+
+"Here's another old friend for you." And he seized me by the shoulder and
+pulled me into the room.
+
+The duchess sprang to her feet, crying out in startled tones, "Back?"
+
+I kept my eyes glued to the floor, wondering what would happen next,
+thinking that it would be, likely enough, a personal conflict with my
+master.
+
+"Yes, back," said he. "I am sorry, madame, if it is not your pleasure, for
+it chances to be mine."
+
+His sneer gave the duchess a moment's time. I felt her regarding me, and I
+looked up cautiously. The duke still stood half a pace in front of me, and
+the message of my glance sped past him unperceived.
+
+Then came what I had looked for--the gradual dawning of the position on
+the duchess, and the reflection of that dawning light in those wonderful
+eyes of hers. She clasped her hands, and drew in her breath in a long
+"Oh!" It spoke utter amusement and delight. What would the duke make of
+it? He did not know what to make of it, and glared at her in angry
+bewilderment. Her quick wit saw the blunder she had been betrayed into.
+She said "Oh!" again, but this time it expressed nothing except a sense of
+insult and indignation.
+
+"What's that man here for?" she asked.
+
+"Because I have engaged him to assist my household."
+
+"I had dismissed him," she said haughtily.
+
+"I must beg you to postpone the execution of your decree," said he. "I
+have need of a servant, and I have no time to find another."
+
+"What need is there of another? Is not Lafleur here?" (She was playing her
+part well now.)
+
+"Lafleur comes to-morrow; but he will not be enough."
+
+"Not enough--for you and me?"
+
+"Our party will be larger to-morrow."
+
+"More surprises?" she asked, sinking back into her chair.
+
+"If it be a surprise that I should invite my friends to my house," he
+retorted.
+
+"And that you should not consult your wife," she said, with a smile.
+
+He turned to me, bethinking himself, I suppose, that the conversation was
+not best suited for the ears of the groom.
+
+"Go and join your fellow-servants; and see that you behave yourself this
+time."
+
+I bowed and was about to withdraw, when the duchess motioned me to stop.
+For an instant her eyes rested on mine. Then she said, in gentle tones:
+
+"I am glad, Sampson, that the duke thinks it safe to give you an
+opportunity of retrieving your character."
+
+"That for his character!" said the duke, snapping his fingers. "I want him
+to help when Mme. and Mlle. Delhasse are here."
+
+On the words the duchess went red in the face, and then white, and sprang
+up, declaring aloud in resolute, angry tones, that witnessed the depth of
+her feelings in the matter:
+
+"I will not receive Mlle. Delhasse!"
+
+I was glad I had not missed that: it was a new aspect of my little friend
+the duchess. Alas, my pleasure was short-lived! for the duke, his face
+full of passion, pointed to the door, saying "Go!" and, cursing his regard
+for the dignity of the family, I went.
+
+In the hall I paused. At first I saw nobody. Presently a rosy, beaming
+face peered at me over the baluster halfway up the stairs, and Suzanne
+stole cautiously down, her finger on her lips.
+
+"But what does it mean, sir?" she whispered.
+
+"It means," said I, "that the duke takes me for the dismissed groom--and
+has re-engaged me."
+
+"And you've come?" she cried softly, clasping her hands in amazement.
+
+"Doesn't it appear so?"
+
+"And you're going to stay, sir?"
+
+"Ah, that's another matter. But--for the moment, yes."
+
+"As a servant?"
+
+"Why not--in such good company?"
+
+"Does madame know?"
+
+"Yes, she knows, Suzanne. Come, show me the way to my quarters; and no
+more 'sir' just now."
+
+We were standing by the stairs. I looked up and saw the other girls
+clustered on the landing above us.
+
+"Go and tell them," I said. "Warn them to show no surprise. Then come back
+and show me the way."
+
+Suzanne, her mirth half-startled out of her but yet asserting its
+existence in dimples round her mouth, went on her errand. I leaned against
+the lowest baluster and waited.
+
+Suddenly the door of the duchess' room was flung open and she came out.
+She stood for an instant on the threshold. She turned toward the interior
+of the room and she stamped her foot on the parqueted floor.
+
+"No--no--no!" she said passionately, and flung the door close behind her,
+to the accompaniment of a harsh, scornful laugh.
+
+Involuntarily I sprang forward to meet her. But she was better on her
+guard than I.
+
+"Not now," she whispered, "but I must see you soon--this evening--after
+dinner. Suzanne will arrange it. You must help me, Mr. Aycon; I'm in
+trouble."
+
+"With all my power!" I whispered, and with a glance of thanks she sped
+upstairs. I saw her stop and speak to the group of girls, talking to them
+in an eager whisper. Then, followed by two of them, she pursued her way
+upstairs.
+
+Suzanne came down and approached me, saying simply, "Come," and led the
+way toward the servants' quarters. I followed her, smiling; I was about to
+make acquaintance with a new side of life.
+
+Yet at the same time I was wondering who Mlle. Delhasse might chance to
+be: the name seemed familiar to me, and yet for the moment I could not
+trace it. And then I slapped my thigh in the impulse of my discovery.
+
+"By Jove, Marie Delhasse the singer!" cried I, in English.
+
+"Sir, sir, for Heaven's sake be quiet!" whispered Suzanne.
+
+"You are perfectly right," said I, with a nod of approbation.
+
+"And this is the pantry," said Suzanne, for all the world as though
+nothing had happened. "And in that cupboard you will find Sampson's
+livery."
+
+"Is it a pretty one?" I asked.
+
+"You, sir, will look well in it," said she, with that delicate evasive
+flattery that I love. "Would not you, sir, look well in anything?" she
+meant.
+
+And while I changed my traveling suit for the livery, I remembered more
+about Marie Delhasse, and, among other things, that the Duke of
+Saint-Maclou was rumored to be her most persistent admirer. Some said that
+she favored him; others denied it with more or less conviction and
+indignation. But, whatever might chance to be the truth about that, it was
+plain that the duchess had something to say for herself when she declined
+to receive the lady. Her refusal was no idle freak, but a fixed
+determination, to which she would probably adhere. And, in fact, adhere to
+it she did, even under some considerable changes of circumstance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A Strategic Retreat.
+
+
+The arrival of the duke, aided perhaps by his bearing toward his wife and
+toward me, had a somewhat curious effect on me. I will not say that I felt
+at liberty to fall in love with the duchess; but I felt the chain of
+honor, which had hitherto bound me from taking any advantage of her
+indiscretion, growing weaker; and I also perceived the possibility of my
+inclinations beginning to strain on the weakened chain. On this account,
+among others, I resolved, as I sat in the pantry drinking a glass of wine
+with which Suzanne kindly provided me, that my sojourn in the duke's
+household should be of the shortest. Moreover, I was not amused; I was not
+a real groom; the maids treated me with greater distance and deference
+than before; I lost the entertainment of upstairs, and did not gain the
+interest of downstairs. The absurd position must be ended. I would hear
+what the duchess wanted of me; then I would go, leaving Lafleur to grapple
+with his increased labors as best he could. True, I should miss Marie
+Delhasse. Well, young men are foolish.
+
+"Perhaps," said I to myself with a sigh, "it's just as well."
+
+I did not wait at table that night; the duchess was shut up in her own
+apartment: the duke took nothing but an omelette and a cup of coffee;
+these finished, he summoned Suzanne and her assistants to attend him on
+the bedroom floor, and I heard him giving directions for the lodging of
+the expected guests. Apparently they were to be received, although the
+duchess would not receive them. Not knowing what to make of that
+situation, I walked out into the garden and lit my pipe; I had clung to
+that in spite of my change of raiment.
+
+Presently Suzanne looked out. A call from the duke proclaimed that she had
+stolen a moment. She nodded, pointed to the narrow gravel path which led
+into the shrubbery, and hastily withdrew. I understood, and strolled
+carelessly along the path till I reached the shrubbery. There another
+little path, running nearly at right angles to that by which I had come,
+opened before me. I strolled some little way along, and finding myself
+entirely hidden from the house by the intervening trees, I sat down on a
+rude wooden bench to wait patiently till I should be wanted. For the
+duchess I should have had to wait some time, but for company I did not
+wait long; after about ten minutes I perceived a small, spare,
+dark-complexioned man coming along the path toward me and toward the
+house. He must have made a short cut from the road, escaping the winding
+of the carriage-way. He wore decent but rather shabby clothes, and carried
+a small valise in his hand. Stopping opposite to me, he raised his hat and
+seemed to scan my neat blue brass-buttoned coat and white cords with
+interest.
+
+"You belong to the household of the duke, sir?" he asked, with a polite
+lift of his hat.
+
+I explained that I did--for the moment.
+
+"Then you think of leaving, sir?"
+
+"I do," I said, "as soon as I can; I am only engaged for the time."
+
+"You do not happen to know, sir, if the duke requires a well-qualified
+indoor servant? I should be most grateful if you would present me to him.
+I heard in Paris that a servant had left him; but he started so suddenly
+that I could not get access to him, and I have followed him here."
+
+"It's exactly what he does want, I believe, sir," said I. "If I were you,
+I would go to the house and obtain entrance. The duke expects guests
+to-morrow."
+
+"But yourself, sir? Are not your services sufficient for the present?"
+
+"As you perceive," said I, indicating my attire, "I am not an indoor
+servant. I am but a makeshift in that capacity."
+
+He smiled a polite remonstrance at my modesty, adding:
+
+"You think, then, I might have a chance?"
+
+"An excellent one, I believe. Turn to the left, there by the chestnut
+tree, and you will find yourself within a minute's walk of the front
+door."
+
+He bowed, raised his hat, and trotted off, moving with a quick, shuffling,
+short-stepping gait. I lit another pipe and yawned. I hoped the duke would
+engage this newcomer and let me go about my business; and I fancied that
+he would, for the fellow looked dapper, sharp, and handy. And the duchess?
+I was so disturbed to find myself disturbed at the thought of the duchess
+that I exclaimed:
+
+"By Jove, I'd better go! By Jove, I had!"
+
+A wishing-cap, or rather a hoping-cap--for if a man who is no philosopher
+may have an opinion, we do not always wish and hope for the same
+thing--could have done no more for me than the chance of Fate; for at the
+moment the duke's voice called "Sampson!" loudly from the house. I ran in
+obedience to his summons. He stood in the porch with the little stranger
+by him; and the stranger wore a deferential, but extremely well-satisfied
+smile.
+
+"Here, you," said the duke to me, "you can make yourself scarce as soon as
+you like. I've got a better servant, aye, and a sober one. There's ten
+francs for you. Now be off!"
+
+I felt it incumbent on me to appear a little aggrieved:
+
+"Am I to go to-night?" I asked. "Where can I get to to-night, my lord?"
+
+"What's that to me? I dare say if you stand old Jean a franc, he'll give
+you a lift to the nearest inn. Tell him he may take a farm-horse."
+
+Really the duke was treating me with quite as much civility as I have seen
+many of my friends extend to their servants. I had nothing to complain of.
+I bowed, and was about to turn away, when the duchess appeared in the
+porch.
+
+"What is it, Armand?" she asked. "You are sending Sampson away after all?"
+
+"I could not deny your request," said he in mockery. "Moreover, I have
+found a better servant."
+
+The stranger almost swept the ground in obeisance before the lady of the
+house.
+
+"You are very changeable," said the duchess.
+
+I saw vexation in her face.
+
+"My dearest, your sex cannot have a monopoly of change. I change a bad
+servant--as you yourself think him--for a good one. Is that remarkable?"
+
+The duchess said not another word, but turned into the house and
+disappeared. The duke followed her. The stranger, with a bow to me,
+followed him. I was left alone.
+
+"Certainly I am not wanted," said I to myself; and, having arrived at this
+conclusion, I sought out old Jean. The old fellow was only too ready to
+drive me to Avranches or anywhere else for five francs, and was soon busy
+putting his horse in the shafts. I sought out Suzanne, got her to smuggle
+my luggage downstairs, gave her a parting present, took off my livery and
+put on the groom's old suit, and was ready to leave the house of M. de
+Saint-Maclou.
+
+At nine o'clock my short servitude ended. As soon as a bend in the road
+hid us from the house I opened my portmanteau, got out my own clothes,
+and, _sub æthere_, changed my raiment, putting on a quiet suit of blue,
+and presenting George Sampson's rather obtrusive garments (which I took
+the liberty of regarding as a perquisite) to Jean, who received them
+gladly. I felt at once a different being--so true it is that the tailor
+makes the man.
+
+"You are well out of that," grunted old Jean. "If he'd discovered you,
+he'd have had you out and shot you!"
+
+"He is a good shot?"
+
+"_Mon Dieu_!" said Jean with an expressiveness which was a little
+disquieting; for it was on the cards that the duke might still find me
+out. And I was not a practiced shot--not at my fellow-men, I mean.
+Suddenly I leaped up.
+
+"Good Heavens!" I cried. "I forgot! The duchess wanted me. Stop, stop!"
+
+With a jerk Jean pulled up his horse, and gazed at me.
+
+"You can't go back like that," he said, with a grin. "You'll have to put
+on these clothes again," and he pointed to the discarded suit.
+
+"I very nearly forgot the duchess," said I. To tell the truth, I was at
+first rather proud of my forgetfulness; it argued a complete triumph over
+that unruly impulse at which I have hinted. But it also smote me with
+remorse. I leaped to the ground.
+
+"You must wait while I run back."
+
+"He will shoot you after all," grinned Jean.
+
+"The devil take him!" said I, picturing the poor duchess utterly
+forsaken--at the mercy of Delhasses, husband, and what not.
+
+I declare, as my deliberate opinion, that there is nothing more dangerous
+than for a man almost to forget a lady who has shown him favor. If he can
+quite forget her--and will be so unromantic--why, let him, and perhaps
+small harm done. But almost--That leaves him at the mercy of every
+generous self-reproach. He is ready to do anything to prove that she was
+every second in his memory.
+
+I began to retrace my steps toward the _château_.
+
+"I shall get the sack over this!" called Jean.
+
+"You shall come to no harm by that, if you do," I assured him.
+
+But hardly had I--my virtuous pride now completely smothered by my tender
+remorse--started on my ill-considered return journey, when, just as had
+happened to Gustave de Berensac and myself the evening before, a slim
+figure ran down from the bank by the roadside. It was the duchess. The
+short cut had served her. She was hardly out of breath this time; and she
+appeared composed and in good spirits.
+
+"I thought for a moment you'd forgotten me, but I knew you wouldn't do
+that, Mr. Aycon."
+
+Could I resist such trust?
+
+"Forget you, madame?" I cried. "I would as soon forget--"
+
+"So I knew you'd wait for me."
+
+"Here I am, waiting faithfully," said I.
+
+"That's right," said the duchess. "Take this, please, Mr. Aycon."
+
+"This" was a small handbag. She gave it to me, and began to walk toward
+the cart, where Jean was placidly smoking a long black cheroot.
+
+"You wished to speak to me?" I suggested, as I walked by her.
+
+"I can do it," said the duchess, reaching the cart, "as we go along."
+
+Even Jean took his cheroot from his lips. I jumped back two paces.
+
+"I beg your pardon!" I exclaimed, "As we go along, did you say?"
+
+"It will be better," said the duchess, getting into the cart (unassisted
+by me, I am sorry to say). "Because he may find out I'm gone, and come
+after us, you know."
+
+Nothing seemed more likely; I was bound to admit that.
+
+"Get in, Mr. Aycon," continued the duchess. And then she suddenly began to
+talk English. "I told him I shouldn't stay in the house if Mlle. Delhasse
+came. He didn't believe me; well, he'll see now. I couldn't stay, could I?
+Why don't you get in?"
+
+Half dazed, I got in. I offered no opinion on the question of Mlle.
+Delhasse: to begin with, I knew very little about it; in the second place
+there seemed to me to be a more pressing question.
+
+"Quick, Jean!" said the duchess.
+
+And we lumbered on at a trot, Jean twisting his cheroot round and round,
+and grunting now and again. The old man's face said, plain as words.
+
+"Yes, I shall get the sack; and you'll be shot!"
+
+I found my tongue.
+
+"Was this what you wanted me for?" I asked.
+
+"Of course," said the duchess, speaking French again.
+
+"But you can't come with me!" I cried in unfeigned horror.
+
+The duchess looked up; she fixed her eyes on me for a moment; her eyes
+grew round, her brows lifted. Then her lips curved: she blushed very red;
+and she burst into the merriest fit of laughter.
+
+"Oh, dear!" laughed the duchess. "Oh, what fun, Mr. Aycon!"
+
+"It seems to me rather a serious matter," I ventured to observe. "Leaving
+out all question of--of what's correct, you know" (I became very
+apologetic at this point), "it's just a little risky, isn't it?"
+
+Jean evidently thought so; he nodded solemnly over his cheroot.
+
+The duchess still laughed; indeed, she was wiping her eyes with her
+handkerchief.
+
+"What an opinion to have of me!" she gasped at last. "I'm not coming with
+you, Mr. Aycon."
+
+I dare say my face showed relief: I don't know that I need be ashamed of
+that. My change of expression, however, set the duchess a-laughing again.
+
+"I never saw a man look so glad," said she gayly. Yet somewhere, lurking
+in the recesses of her tone--or was it of her eyes?--there was a little
+reproach, a little challenge. And suddenly I felt less glad: a change of
+feeling which I do not seek to defend.
+
+"Then where are you going?" I asked in much curiosity.
+
+"I am going," said the duchess, assuming in a moment a most serious air,
+"into religious retirement for a few days."
+
+"Religious retirement?" I echoed in surprise.
+
+"Are you thinking it's not my _métier_?" she asked, her eyes gleaming
+again.
+
+"But where?" I cried.
+
+"Why, there, to be sure." And she pointed to where the square white
+convent stood on the edge of the bay, under the hill of Avranches. "There,
+at the convent. The Mother Superior is my friend, and will protect me."
+
+The duchess spoke as though the guillotine were being prepared for her. I
+sat silent. The situation was becoming rather too complicated for my
+understanding. Unfortunately, however, it was to become more complicated
+still; for the duchess, turning to the English tongue again, laid a hand
+on my arm and said in her most coaxing tones:
+
+"And you, my dear Mr. Aycon, are going to stay a few days in Avranches."
+
+"Not an hour!" would have expressed the resolve of my intellect. But we
+are not all intellect; and what I actually said was:
+
+"What for?"
+
+"In case," said the duchess, "I want you, Mr. Aycon."
+
+"I will stay," said I, nodding, "just a few days at Avranches."
+
+We were within half a mile of that town. The convent gleamed white in the
+moonlight about three hundred yards to the left. The duchess took her
+little bag, jumped lightly down, kissed her hand to me, and walked off.
+
+Jean had made no comment at all--the duchess' household was hard to
+surprise. I could make none. And we drove in silence into Avranches.
+
+When there before with Gustave, I had put up at a small inn at the foot of
+the hill. Now I drove up to the summit and stopped before the principal
+hotel. A waiter ran out, cast a curious glance at my conveyance, and
+lifted my luggage down.
+
+"Let me know if you get into any trouble for being late," said I to Jean,
+giving him another five francs.
+
+He nodded and drove off, still chewing the stump of his cheroot.
+
+"Can I have a room?" I asked, turning to the waiter.
+
+"Certainly, sir," said he, catching up my bag in his hand.
+
+"I am just come," said I, "from Mont St. Michel."
+
+A curious expression spread over the waiter's face. I fancy he knew old
+Jean and the cart by sight; but he spread out his hands and smiled.
+
+"Monsieur," said he with the incomparable courtesy of the French nation,
+"has come from wherever monsieur pleases."
+
+"That," said I, giving him a trifle, "is an excellent understanding."
+
+Then I walked into the _salle-à-manger_, and almost into the arms of an
+extraordinarily handsome girl who was standing just inside the door.
+
+"This is really an eventful day," I thought to myself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A Hint of Something Serious.
+
+
+Occurrences such as this induce in a man of imagination a sense of sudden
+shy intimacy. The physical encounter seems to typify and foreshadow some
+intermingling of destiny. This occurs with peculiar force when the lady is
+as beautiful as was the girl I saw before me.
+
+"I beg your pardon, madame," said I, with a whirl of my hat.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," said the lady, with an inclination of her head.
+
+"One is so careless in entering rooms hurriedly," I observed.
+
+"Oh, but it is stupid to stand just by the door!" insisted the lady.
+
+Conscious that she was scanning my appearance, I could but return the
+compliment. She was very tall, almost as tall as I was myself; you would
+choose to call her stately, rather than slender. She was very fair, with
+large lazy blue eyes and a lazy smile to match. In all respects she was
+the greatest contrast to the Duchess of Saint-Maclou.
+
+"You were about to pass out?" said I, holding the door.
+
+She bowed; but at the moment another lady--elderly, rather stout, and, to
+speak it plainly, of homely and unattractive aspect--whom I had not
+hitherto perceived, called from a table at the other end of the room where
+she was sitting:
+
+"We ought to start early to-morrow."
+
+The younger lady turned her head slowly toward the speaker.
+
+"My dear mother," said she, "I never start early. Besides, this town is
+interesting--the landlord says so."
+
+"But he wishes us to arrive for _déjeuner_."
+
+"We will take it here. Perhaps we will drive over in the
+afternoon--perhaps the next day."
+
+And the young lady gazed at her mother with an air of indifference--or
+rather it seemed to me strangely like one of aversion and defiance.
+
+"My dear!" cried the elder in consternation. "My dearest Marie!"
+
+"It is just as I thought," said I to myself complacently.
+
+Marie Delhasse--for beyond doubt it was she--walked slowly across the room
+and sat down by her mother. I took a table nearer the door; the waiter
+appeared, and I ordered a light supper. Marie poured out a glass of wine
+from a bottle on the table; apparently they had been supping. They began
+to converse together in low tones. My repast arriving, I fell to. A few
+moments later, I heard Marie say, in her composed indolent tones:
+
+"I'm not sure I shall go at all. _Entre nous_, he bores me."
+
+I stole a glance at Mme. Delhasse. Consternation was writ large on her
+face, and suspicion besides. She gave her daughter a quick sidelong
+glance, and a frown gathered on her brow. So far as I heard, however, she
+attempted no remonstrance. She rose, wrapping a shawl round her, and made
+for the door. I sprang up and opened it; she walked out. Marie drew a
+chair to the fire and sat down with her back to me, toasting her feet--for
+the summer night had turned chilly. I finished my supper. The clock struck
+half-past eleven. I stifled a yawn; one smoke and then to the bed was my
+programme.
+
+Marie Delhasse turned her head half-round.
+
+"You must not," said she, "let me prevent you having your cigarette. I
+should set you at ease by going to bed, but I can't sleep so early, and
+upstairs the fire is not lighted."
+
+I thanked her and approached the fire. She was gazing into it
+meditatively. Presently she looked up.
+
+"Smoke, sir," she said imperiously but languidly.
+
+I obeyed her, and stood looking down at her, admiring her stately beauty.
+
+"You have passed the day here?" she asked, gazing again into the fire.
+
+"In this neighborhood," said I, with discreet vagueness.
+
+"You have been able to pass the time?"
+
+"Oh, certainly!" That had not been my difficulty.
+
+"There is, of course," she said wearily, "Mont St. Michel. But can you
+imagine anyone living in such a country?"
+
+"Unless Fate set one here--" I began.
+
+"I suppose that's it," she interrupted.
+
+"You are going to make a stay here?"
+
+"I am," she answered slowly, "on my way to--I don't know where."
+
+I was scrutinizing her closely now, for her manner seemed to witness more
+than indolence; irresolution, vacillation, discomfort, asserted their
+presence. I could not make her out, but her languid indifference appeared
+more assumed than real.
+
+With another upward glance, she said:
+
+"My name is Marie Delhasse."
+
+"It is a well-known name," said I with a bow.
+
+"You have heard of me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What?" she asked quickly, wheeling half-round and facing me.
+
+"That you are a great singer," I answered simply.
+
+"Ah, I'm not all voice! What about me? A woman is more than an organ pipe.
+What about me?"
+
+Her excitement contrasted with the langour she had displayed before.
+
+"Nothing," said I, wondering that she should ask a stranger such a
+question. She glanced at me for an instant. I threw my eyes up to the
+ceiling.
+
+"It is false!" she said quietly; but the trembling of her hands belied her
+composure.
+
+The tawdry gilt clock on the mantelpiece by me ticked through a long
+silence. The last act of the day's comedy seemed set for a more serious
+scene.
+
+"Why do you ask a stranger a question like that?" I said at last, giving
+utterance to the thought that puzzled me.
+
+"Whom should I ask? And I like your face--no, not because it is handsome.
+You are English, sir?"
+
+"Yes, I am English. My name is Gilbert Aycon."
+
+"Aycon--Aycon! It is a little difficult to say it as you say it."
+
+Her thoughts claimed her again. I threw my cigarette into the fire, and
+stood waiting her pleasure. But she seemed to have no more to say, for she
+rose from the seat and held out her hand to me.
+
+"Will you 'shake hands?'" she said, the last two words in English; and she
+smiled again.
+
+I hastened to do as she asked me, and she moved toward the door.
+
+"Perhaps," she said, "I shall see you to-morrow morning."
+
+"I shall be here." Then I added: "I could not help hearing you talk of
+moving elsewhere."
+
+She stood still in the middle of the room; she opened her lips to speak,
+shut them again, and ended by saying nothing more than:
+
+"Yes, we talked of it. My mother wishes it. Good-night, Mr. Aycon."
+
+I bade her good-night, and she passed slowly through the door, which I
+closed behind her. I turned again to the fire, saying:
+
+"What would the duchess think of that?"
+
+I did not even know what I thought of it myself; of one thing only I felt
+sure---that what I had heard of Marie Delhasse was not all that there was
+to learn about her.
+
+I was lodged in a large room on the third floor, and when I awoke the
+bright sun beamed on the convent where, as I presume, Mme. de Saint-Maclou
+lay, and on the great Mount beyond it in the distance. I have never risen
+with a more lively sense of unknown possibilities in the day before me.
+These two women who had suddenly crossed my path, and their relations to
+the pale puffy-cheeked man at the little _château_, might well produce
+results more startling than had seemed to be offered even by such a freak
+as the original expedition undertaken by Gustave de Berensac and me. And
+now Gustave had fallen away and I was left to face the thing alone. For
+face it I must. My promise to the duchess bound me: had it not I doubt
+whether I should have gone; for my interest was not only in the duchess.
+
+I had my coffee upstairs, and then, putting on my hat, went down for a
+stroll. So long as the duke did not come to Avranches, I could show my
+face boldly--and was not he busy preparing for his guests? I crossed the
+threshold of the hotel.
+
+Just at the entrance stood Marie Delhasse; opposite her was a thickset
+fellow, neatly dressed and wearing mutton-chop whiskers. As I came out I
+raised my hat. The man appeared not to notice me, though his eyes fell on
+me for a moment. I passed quickly by--in fact, as quickly as I could--for
+it struck me at once that this man must be Lafleur, and I did not want him
+to give the duke a description of the unknown gentleman who was staying at
+Avranches. Yet, as I went, I had time to hear Marie's slow musical voice
+say:
+
+"I'm not coming at all to-day."
+
+I was very glad of it, and pursued my round of the town with a lighter
+heart. Presently, after half an hour's walk, I found myself opposite the
+church, and thus nearly back at the hotel: and in front of the church
+stood Marie Delhasse, looking at _the façade_.
+
+Raising my hat I went up to her, her friendliness of the evening before
+encouraging me.
+
+"I hope you are going to stay to-day?" said I.
+
+"I don't know." Then she smiled, but not mirthfully. "I expect to be very
+much pressed to go this afternoon," she said.
+
+I made a shot--apparently at a venture.
+
+"Someone will come and carry you off?" I asked jestingly.
+
+"It's very likely. My presence here will be known."
+
+"But need you go?"
+
+She looked on the ground and made no answer.
+
+"Perhaps though," I continued, "he--or she--will not come. He may be too
+much occupied."
+
+"To come for me?" she said, with the first touch of coquetry which I had
+seen in her lighting up her eyes.
+
+"Even for that, it is possible," I rejoined.
+
+We began to walk together toward the edge of the open _place_ in front of
+the church. The convent came in sight as we reached the fall of the hill.
+
+"How peaceful that looks!" she said; "I wonder if it would be pleasant
+there!"
+
+I was myself just wondering how the Duchess of Saint-Maclou found it, when
+a loud cry of warning startled us. We had been standing on the edge of the
+road, and a horse, going at a quick trot, was within five yards of us. As
+it reached us, it was sharply reined in. To my amazement, old Jean, the
+duchess' servant, sat upon it. When he saw me, a smile spread over his
+weather-beaten face.
+
+"I was nearly over you," said he. "You had no ears."
+
+And I am sorry to say that Jean winked, insinuating that Marie Delhasse
+and I had been preoccupied.
+
+The diplomacy of non-recognition had failed to strike Jean. I made the
+best of a bad job, and asked:
+
+"What brings you here?"
+
+Marie stood a few paces off, regarding us.
+
+"I'm looking for Mme. la Duchesse," grinned Jean.
+
+Marie Delhasse took a step forward when she heard his reference to the
+duchess.
+
+"Her absence was discovered by Suzanne at six o'clock this morning," the
+old fellow went on. "And the duke--ah, take care how you come near him,
+sir! Oh, it's a kettle of fish! For as I came I met that coxcomb Lafleur
+riding back with a message from the duke's guests that they would not come
+to-day! So the duchess is gone, and the ladies are not come; and the
+duke--he has nothing to do but curse that whippersnapper of a Pierre who
+came last night."
+
+And Jean ended in a rapturous hoarse chuckle.
+
+"You were riding so fast, then, because you were after the duchess?" I
+suggested.
+
+"I rode fast for fear," said Jean, with a shrewd smile, "that I should
+stop somewhere on the road. Well, I have looked in Avranches. She is not
+in Avranches. I'll go home again."
+
+Marie Delhasse came close to my side.
+
+"Ask him," she said to me, "if he speaks of the Duchess of Saint-Maclou."
+
+I put the question as I was directed.
+
+"You couldn't have guessed better if you'd known," said Jean; and a swift
+glance from Marie Delhasse told me that her suspicion as to my knowledge
+was aroused.
+
+"And what will happen, Jean?" said I.
+
+"The good God knows," shrugged Jean. Then, remembering perhaps my
+five-franc pieces, he said politely, "I hope you are well, sir?"
+
+"Up to now, thank you, Jean," said I.
+
+His glance traveled to Marie. I saw his shriveled lips curl; his
+expression was ominous of an unfortunate remark.
+
+"Good-by!" said I significantly.
+
+Jean had some wits. He spared me the remark, but not the sly leer that had
+been made to accompany it. He clapped his heels to his horse's side and
+trotted off in the direction from which he had come. So that he could
+swear he had been to Avranches, he was satisfied!
+
+Marie Delhasse turned to me, asking haughtily:
+
+"What is the meaning of this? What do you know of the Duke or Duchess of
+Saint-Maclou?"
+
+"I might return your question," said I, looking her in the face.
+
+"Will you answer it?" she said, flushing red.
+
+"No, Mlle. Delhasse, I will not," said I.
+
+"What is the meaning of this 'absence' of the Duchess of Saint-Maclou
+which that man talks about so meaningly?"
+
+Then I said, speaking low and slow:
+
+"Who are the friends whom you are on your way to visit?"
+
+"Who are you?" she cried. "What do you know about it? What concern is it
+of yours?"
+
+There was no indolence or lack of animation in her manner now. She
+questioned me with imperious indignation.
+
+"I will answer not a single word," said I. "But--you asked me last night
+what I had heard of you."
+
+"Well?" she said, and shut her lips tightly on the word.
+
+I held my peace; and in a moment she went on passionately:
+
+"Who would have guessed that you would insult me? Is it your habit to
+insult women?"
+
+"Not mine only, it seems," said I, meeting her glance boldly.
+
+"What do you mean, sir?"
+
+"Had you, then, an invitation from Mme. de Saint-Maclou?"
+
+She drew back as if I had struck her. And I felt as though I had struck
+her. She looked at me for a moment with parted lips; then, without a word
+or a sign, she turned and walked slowly away in the direction of the
+hotel.
+
+And I, glad to have something else to occupy my thoughts, started at a
+brisk pace along the foot-path that runs down the hill and meets the road
+which would lead me to the convent, for I had a thing or two to say to the
+duchess. And yet it was not of the duchess only that I thought as I went.
+There were also in my mind the indignant pride with which Marie Delhasse
+had questioned me, and the shrinking shame in her eyes at that
+counter-question of mine. The Duke of Saint-Maclou's invitation seemed to
+bring as much disquiet to one of his guests as it had to his wife herself.
+But one thing struck me, and I found a sort of comfort in it: she had
+thought, it seemed, that the duchess was to be at home.
+
+"Pah!" I cried suddenly to myself. "If she weren't pretty, you'd say that
+made it worse!"
+
+And I went on in a bad temper.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Heard through the Door.
+
+
+Twenty minutes' walking brought me to the wood which lay between the road
+and the convent. I pressed on; soon the wood ceased and I found myself on
+the outskirts of a paddock of rough grass, where a couple of cows and half
+a dozen goats were pasturing; a row of stunted apple trees ran along one
+side of the paddock, and opposite me rose the white walls of the convent;
+while on my left was the burying-ground with its arched gateway, inscribed
+"_Mors janua vitæ_." I crossed the grass and rang a bell, that clanged
+again and again in echo. Nobody came. I pulled a second time and more
+violently. After some further delay the door was cautiously opened a
+little way, and a young woman looked out. She was a round-faced,
+red-cheeked, fresh creature, arrayed in a large close-fitting white cap, a
+big white collar over her shoulders, and a black gown. When she saw me,
+she uttered an exclamation of alarm, and pushed the door to again. Just in
+time I inserted my foot between door and doorpost.
+
+"I beg your pardon," said I politely, "but you evidently misunderstand me.
+I wish to enter."
+
+She peered at me through the two-inch gap my timely foot had preserved.
+
+"But it is impossible," she objected. "Our rules do not allow it. Indeed,
+I may not talk to you. I beg of you to move your foot."
+
+"But then you would shut the door."
+
+She could not deny it.
+
+"I mean no harm," I protested.
+
+"'The guile of the wicked is infinite,'" remarked the little nun.
+
+"I want to see the Mother Superior," said I. "Will you take my name to
+her?"
+
+I heard another step in the passage. The door was flung wide open, and a
+stout and stately old lady faced me, a frown on her brow.
+
+"Madame," said I, "until you hear my errand you will think me an
+ill-mannered fellow."
+
+"What is your business, sir?"
+
+"It is for your ear alone, madame."
+
+"You can't come in here," said she decisively.
+
+For a moment I was at a loss. Then the simplest solution in the world
+occurred to me.
+
+"But you can come out, madame," I suggested.
+
+She looked at me doubtfully for a minute. Then she stepped out, shutting
+the door carefully behind her. I caught a glimpse of the little nun's
+face, and thought there was a look of disappointment on it. The old lady
+and I began to walk along the path that led to the burying-ground.
+
+"I do not know," said I, "whether you have heard of me. My name is Aycon."
+
+"I thought so. Mr. Aycon, I must tell you that you are very much to blame.
+You have led this innocent, though thoughtless, child into most deplorable
+conduct."
+
+("Well done, little duchess!" said I to myself; but of course I was not
+going to betray her.)
+
+"I deeply regret my thoughtlessness," said I earnestly. "I would, however,
+observe that the present position of the duchess is not due to my--shall
+we say misconduct?--but to that of her husband. I did not invite--"
+
+"Don't mention her name!" interrupted the Mother Superior in horror.
+
+We had reached the arched gateway; and there appeared standing within it a
+figure most charmingly inappropriate to a graveyard--the duchess herself,
+looking as fresh as a daisy, and as happy as a child with a new toy. She
+ran to me, holding out both hands and crying:
+
+"Ah, my dear, dear Mr. Aycon, you are the most delightful man alive! You
+come at the very moment I want you."
+
+"Be sober, my child, be sober!" murmured the old lady.
+
+"But I want to hear," expostulated the duchess. "Do you know anything, Mr.
+Aycon? What has been happening up at the house? What has the duke done?"
+
+As the duchess poured out her questions, we passed through the gate; the
+ladies sat down on a stone bench just inside, and I, standing, told my
+story. The duchess was amused to hear of old Jean's chase of her; but she
+showed no astonishment till I told her that Marie Delhasse was at the
+hotel in Avranches, and had declined to go further on her journey to-day.
+
+"At the hotel? Then you've seen her?" she burst out. "What is she like?"
+
+"She is most extremely handsome," said I. "Moreover, I am inclined to like
+her."
+
+The Mother Superior opened her lips--to reprove me, no doubt; but the
+duchess was too quick.
+
+"Oh, you like her? Perhaps you're going to desert me and go over to her?"
+she cried in indignation, that was, I think, for the most part feigned.
+Certainly the duchess did not look very alarmed. But in regard to what she
+said, the old lady was bound to have a word.
+
+"What is Mr. Aycon to you, my child?" said she solemnly. "He is
+nothing--nothing at all to you, my child."
+
+"Well, I want him to be less than nothing to Mlle. Delhasse," said the
+duchess, with a pout for her protector and a glance for me.
+
+"Mlle. Delhasse is very angry with me just now," said I.
+
+"Oh, why?" asked the duchess eagerly.
+
+"Because she gathered that I thought she ought to wait for an invitation
+from you, before she went to your house."
+
+"She should wait till the Day of Judgment!" cried the duchess.
+
+"That would not matter," observed the Mother Superior dryly.
+
+Suddenly, without pretext or excuse, the duchess turned and walked very
+quickly--nay, she almost ran--away along the path that encircled the group
+of graves. Her eye had bidden me, and I followed no less briskly. I heard
+a despairing sigh from the poor old lady, but she had no chance of
+overtaking us. The audacious movement was successful.
+
+"Now we can talk," said the duchess.
+
+And talk she did, for she threw at me the startling assertion:
+
+"I believe you're falling in love with Mlle. Delhasse. If you do, I'll
+never speak to you again!"
+
+"If I do," said I, "I shall probably accept that among the other
+disadvantages of the entanglement."
+
+"That's very rude," observed the duchess.
+
+"Nothing with an 'if' in it is rude," said I speciously.
+
+"Men must be always in love with somebody," said she resentfully.
+
+"It certainly approaches a necessity," I assented.
+
+The duchess glanced at me. Perhaps I had glanced at her; I hope not.
+
+"Oh, well," said she, "hadn't we better talk business?"
+
+"Infinitely better," said I; and I meant it.
+
+"What am I to do?" she asked, with a return to her more friendly manner.
+
+"Nothing," said I.
+
+It is generally the safest advice--to women at all events.
+
+"You are content with the position? You like being at the hotel perhaps?"
+
+"Should I not be hard to please, if I didn't?"
+
+"I know you are trying to annoy me, but you shan't. Mr. Aycon, suppose my
+husband comes over to Avranches, and sees you?"
+
+"I have thought of that."
+
+"Well, what have you decided?"
+
+"Not to think about it till it happens. But won't he be thinking more
+about you than me?"
+
+"He won't do anything about me," she said. "In the first place, he will
+want no scandal. In the second, he does not want me. But he will come over
+to see her."
+
+"Her" was, of course, Marie Delhasse. The duchess assigned to her the
+sinister distinction of the simple pronoun.
+
+"Surely he will take means to get you to go back?" I exclaimed.
+
+"If he could have caught me before I got here, he would have been glad.
+Now he will wait; for if he came here and claimed me, what he proposed to
+do would become known."
+
+There seemed reason in this; the duchess calculated shrewdly.
+
+"In fact," said I, "I had better go back to the hotel."
+
+"That does not seem to vex you much."
+
+"Well, I can't stay here, can I?" said I, looking round at the nunnery.
+"It would be irregular, you know."
+
+"You might go to another hotel," suggested she.
+
+"It is most important that I should watch what is going on at my present
+hotel," said I gravely; for I did not wish to move.
+
+"You are the most--" began the duchess.
+
+But this bit of character-reading was lost. Slow but sure, the Mother
+Superior was at our elbows.
+
+"Adieu, Mr. Aycon," said she.
+
+I felt sure that she must manage the nuns admirably.
+
+"Adieu!" said I, as though there was nothing else to be said.
+
+"Adieu!" said the duchess, as though she would have liked to say something
+else.
+
+And all in a moment I was through the gateway and crossing the paddock.
+But the duchess ran to the gate, crying:
+
+"Mind you come again to-morrow!"
+
+My expedition consumed nearly two hours; and one o'clock struck from the
+tower of the church as I slowly climbed the hill, feeling (I must admit
+it) that the rest of the day would probably be rather dull. Just as I
+reached the top, however, I came plump on Mlle. Delhasse, who appeared to
+be taking a walk. She bowed to me slightly and coldly. Glad that she was
+so distant (for I did not like her looks), I returned her salute, and
+pursued my way to the hotel. In the porch of it stood the waiter--my
+friend who had taken such an obliging view of my movements the night
+before. Directly he saw me, he came out into the road to meet me.
+
+"Are you acquainted with the ladies who have rooms on the first floor?" he
+asked with an air of mystery.
+
+"I met them here for the first time," said I.
+
+I believe he doubted me; perhaps waiters are bred to suspicion by the
+things they see.
+
+"Ah!" said he, "then it does not interest you to know that a gentleman has
+been to see the young lady?"
+
+I took out ten francs.
+
+"Yes, it does," said I, handing him the money. "Who was it?"
+
+"The Duke of Saint-Maclou," he whispered mysteriously.
+
+"Is he gone?" I asked in some alarm. I had no wish to encounter him.
+
+"This half-hour, sir."
+
+"Did he see both the ladies?"
+
+"No; only the young lady. Madame went out immediately on his arrival, and
+is not yet returned."
+
+"And mademoiselle?"
+
+"She is in her room."
+
+Thinking I had not got much, save good will, for my ten francs--for he
+told me nothing but what I had expected to hear--I was about to pass on,
+when he added, in a tone which seemed more significant than the question
+demanded:
+
+"Are you going up to your room, sir?"
+
+"I am," said I.
+
+"Permit me to show you the way," he said--though his escort seemed to me
+very unnecessary.
+
+He mounted before me. We reached the first floor. Opposite to us, not
+three yards away, was the door of the sitting-room which I knew to be
+occupied by the Delhasses.
+
+"Go on," said I.
+
+"In a moment, sir," he said.
+
+Then he held up his hand in the attitude of a man who listens.
+
+"One should not listen," he whispered, apologetically; "but it is so
+strange. I thought that if you knew the lady--Hark!"
+
+I knew that we ought not to listen. But the mystery of the fellow's manner
+and the concern of his air constrained me, and I too paused, listening.
+
+From behind the door there came to our strained attentive ears the sound
+of a woman sobbing. I sought the waiter's eyes; they were already bent on
+me. Again the sad sounds came--low, swift, and convulsive. It went to my
+heart to hear them. I did not know what to do. To go on upstairs to my own
+room and mind my own business seemed the simple thing--simple, easy, and
+proper. But my feet were glued to the boards. I could not go, with that
+sound beating on my ears: I should hear it all the day. I glanced again at
+the waiter. He was a kind-looking fellow, and I saw the tears standing in
+his eyes.
+
+"And mademoiselle is so beautiful!" he whispered.
+
+"What the devil business is it of yours?" said I, in a low but fierce
+tone.
+
+"None," said he. "I am content to leave it to you, sir;" and without more
+he turned and went downstairs.
+
+It was all very well to leave it to me; but what--failing that simple,
+easy, proper, and impossible course of action which I have indicated--was
+I to do?
+
+Well, what I did was this: I went to the door of the room and knocked
+softly. There was no answer. The sobs continued. I had been a brute to
+this girl in the morning; I thought of that as I stood outside.
+
+"My God! what's the matter with her?" I whispered.
+
+And then I opened the door softly.
+
+Marie Delhasse sat in a chair, her head resting in her hands and her hands
+on the table; and her body was shaken with her weeping.
+
+And on the table, hard by her bowed golden head, there lay a square
+leathern box. I stood on the threshold and looked at her.
+
+The rest of the day did not now seem likely to be dull; but it might prove
+to have in store for me more difficult tasks than the enduring of a little
+dullness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+I Find that I Care.
+
+
+For a moment I stood stock still, wishing to Heaven that I had not opened
+the door; for I could find now no excuse for my intrusion, and no reason
+why I should not have minded my own business. The impulse that had made
+the thing done was exhausted in the doing of it. Retreat became my sole
+object; and, drawing back, I pulled the door after me. But I had given
+Fortune a handle--very literally; for the handle of the door grated loud
+as I turned it. Despairing of escape, I stood still. Marie Delhasse looked
+up with a start.
+
+"Who's there?" she cried in frightened tones, hastily pressing her
+handkerchief to her eyes.
+
+There was no help for it. I stepped inside, saying:
+
+"I'm ashamed to say that I am."
+
+I deserved and expected an outburst of indignation. My surprise was great
+when she sank against the back of the chair with a sigh of relief. I
+lingered awkwardly just inside the threshold.
+
+"What do you want? Why did you come in?" she asked, but rather in
+bewilderment than anger.
+
+"I was passing on my way upstairs, and--and you seemed to be in distress."
+
+"Did I make such a noise as that?" said she. "I'm as bad as a child; but
+children cry because they mustn't do things, and I because I must."
+
+We appeared to be going to talk. I shut the door.
+
+"My intrusion is most impertinent," said I. "You have every right to
+resent it."
+
+"Oh, have I the right to resent anything? Did you think so this morning?"
+she asked impetuously.
+
+"The morning," I observed, "is a terribly righteous time with me. I must
+beg your pardon for what I said."
+
+"You think the same still?" she retorted quickly.
+
+"That is no excuse for having said it," I returned. "It was not my
+affair."
+
+"It is nobody's affair, I suppose, but mine."
+
+"Unless you allow it to be," said I. I could not endure the desolation her
+words and tone implied.
+
+She looked at me curiously.
+
+"I don't understand," she said in a fretfully weary tone, "how you come to
+be mixed up in it at all."
+
+"It's a long story." Then I went on abruptly: "You thought it was someone
+else that had entered."
+
+"Well, if I did?"
+
+"Someone returning," said I stepping up to the table opposite her.
+
+"What then?" she asked, but wearily and not in the defiant manner of the
+morning.
+
+"Mme. Delhasse perhaps, or perhaps the Duke of Saint-Maclou?"
+
+Marie Delhasse made no answer. She sat with her elbows on the table, and
+her chin resting on the support of her clenched hands; her lids drooped
+over her eyes; and I could not see the expression of her glance, which
+was, nevertheless, upon me.
+
+"Well, well," I continued, "we needn't talk about him. Have you been doing
+some shopping?" And I pointed to the red leathern box.
+
+For full half a minute she sat, without speech or movement. Then she said
+in answer to my question, which she could not take as an idle one:
+
+"Yes, I have been doing some bargaining."
+
+"Is that the result?"
+
+Again she paused long before she answered.
+
+"That," said she, "is a trifle--thrown in."
+
+"To bind the bargain?" I suggested.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Aycon--to bind the bargain."
+
+"Is it allowed to look?"
+
+"I think everything must be allowed to you. You would be so surprised if
+it were not."
+
+I understood that she was aiming a satirical remark at me: I did not mind
+that; she had better flay me alive than sit and cry.
+
+"Then I may open the box?"
+
+"The key is in it."
+
+I drew the box across, and I took a chair that stood by. I turned the key
+of the box. A glance showed me Marie's drooped lids half raised and her
+eyes fixed on my face.
+
+I opened the box: there lay in it, in sparkling coil on the blue velvet, a
+magnificent diamond necklace; one great stone formed a pendent, and it was
+on this stone that I fixed my regard. I took it up and looked at it
+closely; then I examined the necklace itself. Marie's eyes followed my
+every motion.
+
+"You like these trinkets?" I asked.
+
+"Yes," said she, in that tone in which "yes" is stronger than a thousand
+words of rapture; and the depths of her eyes caught fire from the stones,
+and gleamed.
+
+"But you know nothing about them," I pursued composedly.
+
+"I suppose they are valuable," said she, making an effort after
+_nonchalance_.
+
+"They have some value," I conceded, smiling. "But I mean about their
+history."
+
+"They are bought, I suppose--bought and sold."
+
+"I happen to know just a little about such things. In fact, I have a book
+at home in which there is a picture of this necklace. It is known as the
+Cardinal's Necklace. The stones were collected by Cardinal Armand de
+Saint-Maclou, Archbishop of Caen, some thirty years ago. They were set by
+Lebeau of Paris, on the order of the cardinal, and were left by him to his
+nephew, our friend the duke. Since his marriage, the duchess has of course
+worn them."
+
+All this I said in a most matter-of-fact tone.
+
+"Do you mean that they belong to her?" asked Marie, with a sudden lift of
+her eyes.
+
+"I don't know. Strictly, I should think not," said I impassively.
+
+Marie Delhasse stretched out her hand and began to finger the stones.
+
+"She wore them, did she?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Ah! I supposed they had just been bought." And she took her fingers off
+them.
+
+"It would take a large sum to do that--to buy them _en bloc_," I observed.
+
+"How much?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know! The market varies so much: perhaps a million francs,
+perhaps more. You can't tell how much people will give for such things."
+
+"No, it is difficult," she assented, again fingering the necklace, "to say
+what people will give for them."
+
+I leaned back in my chair. There was a pause. Then her eyes suddenly met
+mine again, and she exclaimed defiantly:
+
+"Oh, you know very well what it means! What's the good of fencing about
+it?"
+
+"Yes, I know what it means," said I. "When have you promised to go?"
+
+"To-morrow," she answered.
+
+"Because of this thing?" and I pointed to the necklace.
+
+"Because of--How dare you ask me such questions!"
+
+I rose from my seat and bowed.
+
+"You are going?" she asked, her fingers on the necklace, and her eyes
+avoiding mine.
+
+"I have the honor," said I, "to enjoy the friendship of the Duchess of
+Saint-Maclou."
+
+"And that forbids you to enjoy mine?"
+
+I bowed assent to her inference. She sat still at the table, her chin on
+her hands. I was about to leave her, when it struck me all in a moment
+that leaving her was not exactly the best thing to do, although it might
+be much the easiest. I arrested my steps.
+
+"Well," she asked, "is not our acquaintance ended?"
+
+And she suddenly opened her hands and hid her face in them. It was a
+strange conclusion to a speech so coldly and distantly begun.
+
+"For God's sake, don't go!" said I, bending a little across the table
+toward her.
+
+"What's it to you? What's it to anybody?" came from between her fingers.
+
+"Your mother--" I began.
+
+She dropped her hands from her face, and laughed. It was a laugh the like
+of which I hope not to hear again. Then she broke out:
+
+"Why wouldn't she have me in the house? Why did she run away? Am I unfit
+to touch her?"
+
+"If she were wrong, you're doing your best to make her right."
+
+"If everybody thinks one wicked, one may as well be wicked, and--and live
+in peace."
+
+"And get diamonds?" I added, "Weren't you wicked?"
+
+"No," she said, looking me straight in the face. "But what difference did
+that make?"
+
+"None at all, in one point of view," said I. But to myself I was swearing
+that she should not go.
+
+Then she said in a very low tone:
+
+"He never leaves me. Ah! he makes everyone think--"
+
+"Let 'em think," said I.
+
+"If everyone thinks it--"
+
+"Oh, come, nonsense!" said I.
+
+"You know what you thought. What honest woman would have anything to do
+with me--or what honest man either?"
+
+I had nothing to say about that; so I said again.
+
+"Well, don't go, anyhow."
+
+She spoke in lower tones, as she answered this appeal of mine:
+
+"I daren't refuse. He'll be here again; and my mother--"
+
+"Put it off a day or two," said I. "And don't take that thing."
+
+She looked at me, it seemed to me, in astonishment.
+
+"Do you really care?" she asked, speaking very low.
+
+I nodded. I did care, somehow.
+
+"Enough to stand by me, if I don't go?"
+
+I nodded again.
+
+"I daren't refuse right out. My mother and he--"
+
+She broke off.
+
+"Have something the matter with you: flutters or something," I suggested.
+
+The ghost of a smile appeared on her face.
+
+"You'll stay?" she asked.
+
+I had to stay, anyhow. Perhaps I ought to have said so, and not stolen
+credit; but all I did was to nod again.
+
+"And, if I ask you, you'll--you'll stand between me and him?"
+
+I hoped that my meeting with the duke would not be in a strong light; but
+I only said:
+
+"Rather! I'll do anything I can, of course."
+
+She did not thank me; she looked at me again. Then she observed.
+
+"My mother will be back soon."
+
+"And I had better not be here?"
+
+"No."
+
+I advanced to the table again, and laid my hand on the box containing the
+Cardinal's necklace.
+
+"And this?" I asked in a careless tone.
+
+"Ought I to send them back?"
+
+"You don't want to?"
+
+"What's the use of saying I do? I love them. Besides, he'll see through
+it. He'll know that I mean I won't come. I daren't--I daren't show him
+that!"
+
+Then I made a little venture; for, fingering the box idly, I said:
+
+"It would be uncommonly handsome of you to give 'em to the duchess."
+
+"To the duchess?" she gasped in wondering tones.
+
+"You see," I remarked, "either they are the duchess', in which case she
+ought to have them; or, if they were the duke's, they're yours now; and
+you can do what you like with them."
+
+"He gave them me on--on a condition."
+
+"A condition," said I, "no gentleman could mention, and no law enforce."
+
+She blushed scarlet, but sat silent.
+
+"Revenge is sweet," said I. "She ran away rather than meet you. You send
+her her diamonds!"
+
+A sudden gleam shot into Marie Delhasse's eyes.
+
+"Yes," she said, "yes." And stopped, thinking, with her hands clasped.
+
+"You send them by me," I pursued, delighted with the impression which my
+suggestion had made upon her.
+
+"By you? You see her, then?" she asked quickly.
+
+"Occasionally," I answered. The duchess' secret was not mine, and I did
+not say where I saw her.
+
+"I'll give them to you," said Marie--"to you, not to the duchess."
+
+"I won't have 'em at any price," said I. "Come, your mother will be back
+soon. I believe you want to keep 'em." And I assumed a disgusted air.
+
+"I don't!" she flashed out passionately. "I don't want to touch them! I
+wouldn't keep them for the world!"
+
+I looked at my watch. With a swift motion, Marie Delhasse leaped from her
+chair, dashed down the lid of the box, hiding the glitter of the stones,
+seized the box in her two hands and with eyes averted held it out to me.
+
+"For the duchess?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, for the duchess," said Marie, with, averted eyes.
+
+I took the box, and stowed it in the capacious pocket of the
+shooting-jacket which I was wearing.
+
+"Go!" said Marie, pointing to the door.
+
+I held out my hand. She caught it in hers. Upon my word, I thought she was
+going to kiss it. So strongly did I think it that, hating fuss of that
+sort, I made a half-motion to pull it away. However, I was wrong. She
+merely pressed it and let it drop.
+
+"Cheer up! cheer up! I'll turn up again soon," said I, and I left the
+room.
+
+And left in the nick of time; for at the very moment when I, hugging the
+lump in my coat which marked the position of the Cardinal's Necklace,
+reached the foot of the stairs Mme. Delhasse appeared on her way up.
+
+"Oh, you old viper!" I murmured thoughtlessly, in English.
+
+"Pardon, monsieur?" said Mme. Delhasse.
+
+"Forgive me: I spoke to myself--a foolish habit," I rejoined, with a low
+bow and, I'm afraid, a rather malicious smile. The old lady glared at me,
+bobbed her head the slightest bit in the world, and passed me by.
+
+I went out into the sunshine, whistling merrily. My good friend the waiter
+stood by the door. His eyes asked me a question.
+
+"She is much better," I said reassuringly. And I walked out, still
+whistling merrily.
+
+In truth I was very pleased with myself. Every man likes to think that he
+understands women. I was under the impression that I had proved myself to
+possess a thorough and complete acquaintance with that intricate subject.
+I was soon to find that my knowledge had its limitations. In fact, I have
+been told more than once since that my plan was a most outrageous one.
+Perhaps it was; but it had the effect of wresting those dangerous stones
+from poor Marie's regretful hands. A man need not mind having made a fool
+of himself once or twice on his way through the world, so he has done some
+good by the process. At the moment, however, I felt no need for any such
+apology.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+An Unparalleled Insult.
+
+
+I was thoughtful as I walked across the _place_ in front of the church in
+the full glare of the afternoon sun. It was past four o'clock; the town
+was more lively, as folk, their day's work finished, came out to take
+their ease and filled the streets and the _cafés_. I felt that I also had
+done something like a day's work; but my task was not complete till I had
+lodged my precious trust safely in the keeping of the duchess.
+
+There was, however, still time to spare, and I sat down at a _café_ and
+ordered some coffee. While it was being brought my thoughts played round
+Marie Delhasse. I doubted whether I disliked her for being tempted, or
+liked her for resisting at the last; at any rate, I was glad to have
+helped her a little. If I could now persuade her to leave Avranches, I
+should have done all that could reasonably be expected of me; if the duke
+pursued, she must fight the battle for herself. So I mused, sipping my
+coffee; and then I fell to wondering what the duchess would say on seeing
+me again so soon. Would she see me? She must, whether she liked it or not;
+I could not keep the diamonds all night. Perhaps she would like.
+
+"There you are again!" I said to myself sharply, and I roused myself from
+my meditations.
+
+As I looked up, I saw the man Lafleur opposite to me. He had his back
+toward me, but I knew him, and he was just walking into a shop that faced
+the _café_ and displayed in its windows an assortment of offensive
+weapons--guns, pistols, and various sorts of knives. Lafleur went in. I
+sat sipping my coffee. He was there nearly twenty minutes; then he came
+out and walked leisurely away. I paid my score and strolled over to the
+shop. I wondered what he had been buying. Dueling pistols for the duke,
+perhaps! I entered and asked to be shown some penknives. The shopman
+served me with alacrity. I chose a cheap knife, and then I permitted my
+gaze to rest on a neat little pistol that lay on the counter. My simple
+_ruse_ was most effective. In a moment I was being acquainted with all the
+merits of the instrument, and the eulogy was backed by the information
+that a gentleman had bought two pistols of the same make not ten minutes
+before I entered the shop.
+
+"Really!" said I. "What for?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know, sir. It is a wise thing often to carry one of these
+little fellows. One never knows."
+
+"In case of a quarrel with another gentleman?"
+
+"Oh, they are hardly such as we sell for dueling, sir."
+
+"Aren't they?"
+
+"They are rather pocket pistols--to carry if you are out at night; and we
+sell many to gentlemen who have occasion in the way of their business to
+carry large sums of money or valuables about with them. They give a sense
+of security, sir, even if no occasion arises for their use."
+
+"And this gentleman bought two? Who was he?"
+
+"I don't know, sir. He gave me no name."
+
+"And you didn't know him by sight?"
+
+"No, sir; perhaps he is a stranger. But indeed I'm almost that myself: I
+have but just set up business here."
+
+"Is it brisk?" I asked, examining the pistol.
+
+"It is not a brisk place, sir," the man answered regretfully. "Let me sell
+you one, sir!"
+
+It happened to be, for the moment, in the way of my business to carry
+valuables, but I hoped it would not be for long, so that I did not buy a
+pistol; but I allowed myself to wonder what my friend Lafleur wanted with
+two--and they were not dueling pistols! If I had been going to keep the
+diamonds--but then I was not. And, reminded by this reflection, I set out
+at once for the convent.
+
+Now the manner in which the Duchess of Saint-Maclou saw fit to treat
+me--who was desirous only of serving her--on this occasion went far to
+make me disgusted with the whole affair into which I had been drawn. It
+might have been supposed that she would show gratitude; I think that even
+a little admiration and a little appreciation of my tact would not have
+been, under the circumstances, out of place. It is not every day that a
+lady has such a thing as the Cardinal's Necklace rescued from great peril
+and freely restored, with no claim (beyond that for ordinary civility) on
+the part of the rescuer.
+
+And the cause did not lie in her happening to be out of temper, for she
+greeted me at first with much graciousness, and sitting down on the corn
+bin (she was permitted on this occasion to meet me in the stable), she
+began to tell me that she had received a most polite--and indeed almost
+affectionate--letter from the duke, in which he expressed deep regret for
+her absence, but besought her to stay where she was as long as the health
+of her soul demanded. He would do himself the honor of waiting on her and
+escorting her home, when she made up her mind to return to him.
+
+"Which means," observed the duchess, as she replaced the letter in her
+pocket, "that the Delhasses are going, and that if I go (without notice
+anyhow) I shall find them there."
+
+"I read it in the same way; but I'm not so sure that the Delhasses are
+going."
+
+"You are so charitable," said she, still quite sweetly. "You can't bring
+yourself to think evil of anybody."
+
+The duchess chanced to look so remarkably calm and composed as she sat on
+the corn bin that I could not deny myself the pleasure of surprising her
+with the sudden apparition of the Cardinal's Necklace. Without a word, I
+took the case out of my pocket, opened it, and held it out toward her. For
+once the duchess sat stock-still, her eyes round and large.
+
+"Have you been robbing and murdering my husband?" she gasped.
+
+With a very complacent smile I began my story. Who does not know what it
+is to begin a story with a triumphant confidence in its favorable
+reception? Who does not know that first terrible glimmer of doubt when the
+story seems not to be making the expected impression? Who has not endured
+the dull dogged despair in which the story, damned by the stony faces of
+the auditors, has yet to drag on a hated weary life to a dishonored grave?
+
+These stages came and passed as I related to Mme. de Saint-Maclou how I
+came to be in a position to hand back to her the Cardinal's Necklace.
+Still, silent, pale, with her lips curled in a scornful smile, she sat and
+listened. My tone lost its triumphant ring, and I finished in cold,
+distant, embarrassed accents.
+
+"I have only," said I, "to execute my commission and hand the box and its
+contents over to you."
+
+And, thus speaking, I laid the necklace in its case on the corn bin beside
+the duchess.
+
+The duchess said nothing at all. She looked at me once--just once; and I
+wished then and there that I had listened to Gustave de Berensac's second
+thoughts and left with him at ten o'clock in the morning. Then having
+delivered this barbed shaft of the eyes, the duchess sat looking straight
+in front of her, bereft of her quick-changing glances, robbed of her
+supple grace--like frozen quicksilver. And the necklace glittered away
+indifferently between us.
+
+At last the duchess, her eyes still fixed on the whitewashed wall
+opposite, said in a slow emphatic tone:
+
+"I wouldn't touch it, if it were the crown of France!"
+
+I plucked up my courage to answer her. For Marie Delhasse's sake I felt a
+sudden anger.
+
+"You are pharisaical," said I. "The poor girl has acted honorably. Her
+touch has not defiled your necklace."
+
+"Yes, you must defend what you persuaded," flashed out the duchess. "It's
+the greatest insult I was ever subjected to in my life!"
+
+Here was the second lady I had insulted on that summer day!
+
+"I did but suggest it--it was her own wish."
+
+"Your suggestion is her wish! How charming!" said the duchess.
+
+"You are unjust to her!" I said, a little warmly.
+
+The duchess rose from the corn bin, made the very most of her sixty-three
+inches, and remarked:
+
+"It's a new insult to mention her to me."
+
+I passed that by; it was too absurd to answer.
+
+"You must take it now I've brought it," I urged in angry puzzle.
+
+The duchess put out her hand, grasped the case delicately, shut it--and
+flung it to the other side of the stable, hard by where an old ass was
+placidly eating a bundle of hay.
+
+"That's the last time I shall touch it!" said she, turning and looking me
+in the face.
+
+"But what am I to do with it?" I cried.
+
+"Whatever you please," returned Mme. de Saint-Maclou; and without another
+word, without another glance, either at me or at the necklace, she walked
+out of the stable, and left me alone with the necklace and the ass.
+
+The ass had given one start as the necklace fell with a thud on the floor;
+but he was old and wise, and soon fell again to his meal. I sat drumming
+my heels against the corn bin. Evening was falling fast, and everything
+was very still. No man ever had a more favorable hour for reflection and
+introspection. I employed it to the full. Then I rose, and crossing the
+stable, pulled the long ears of my friend who was eating the hay.
+
+"I suppose you also were a young ass once," said I with a rueful smile.
+
+Well, I couldn't leave the Cardinal's Necklace in the corner of the
+convent stable. I picked up the box. Neddy thrust out his nose at it. I
+opened it and let him see the contents. He snuffed scornfully and turned
+back to the hay.
+
+"He won't take it either," said I to myself, and with a muttered curse I
+dropped the wretched thing back in the pocket of my coat, wishing much
+evil to everyone who had any hand in bringing me into connection with it,
+from his Eminence the Cardinal Armand de Saint-Maclou down to the waiter
+at the hotel.
+
+Slowly and in great gloom of mind I climbed the hill again. I supposed
+that I must take the troublesome ornament back to Marie Delhasse,
+confessing that my fine idea had ended in nothing save a direct and
+stinging insult for her and a scathing snub for me. My pride made this
+necessity hard to swallow, but I believe there was also a more worthy
+feeling that caused me to shrink from it. I feared that her good
+resolutions would not survive such treatment, and that the rebuff would
+drive her headlong into the ruin from which I had trusted that she would
+be saved. Yet there was nothing else for it. Back the necklace must go. I
+could but pray--and earnestly I did pray--that my fears might not be
+realized.
+
+I found myself opposite the gun-maker's shop; and it struck me that I
+might probably fail to see Marie alone that evening. I had no means of
+defense--I had never thought any necessary. But now a sudden nervousness
+got hold of me: it seemed to me as if my manner must betray to everyone
+that I carried the necklace--as if the lump in my coat stood out
+conspicuous as Mont St. Michel itself. Feeling that I was doing a
+half-absurd thing, still I stepped into the shop and announced that, on
+further reflection, I would buy the little pistol. The good man was
+delighted to sell it to me.
+
+"If you carry valuables, sir," he said, repeating his stock
+recommendation, "it will give you a feeling of perfect safety."
+
+"I don't carry valuables," said I abruptly, almost rudely, and with most
+unnecessary emphasis.
+
+"I did but suggest, sir," he apologized. "And at least, it may be that you
+will require to do so some day."
+
+"That," I was forced to admit, "is of course not impossible." And I slid
+the pistol and a supply of cartridges into the other pocket of my coat.
+
+"Distribute the load, sir," advised the smiling nuisance. "One side of
+your coat will be weighed down. Ah, pardon! I perceive that there is
+already something in the other pocket."
+
+"A sandwich-case," said I; and he bowed with exactly the smile the waiter
+had worn when I said that I came from Mont St. Michel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Left on my Hands.
+
+
+"There is nothing else for it!" I exclaimed, as I set out for the hotel.
+"I'll go back to England."
+
+I could not resist the conclusion that my presence in Avranches was no
+longer demanded. The duchess had, on the one hand, arrived at a sort of
+understanding with her husband; while she had, on the other, contrived to
+create a very considerable misunderstanding with me. She had shown no
+gratitude for my efforts, and made no allowance for the mistakes which,
+possibly, I had committed. She had behaved so unreasonably as to release
+me from any obligation. As to Marie Delhasse, I had had enough (so I
+declared in the hasty disgust my temper engendered) of Quixotic endeavors
+to rescue people who, had they any moral resolution, could well rescue
+themselves. There was only one thing left which I might with dignity
+undertake--and that was to put as many miles as I could between the scene
+of my unappreciated labors and myself. This I determined to do the very
+next day, after handing back this abominable necklace with as little
+obvious appearance of absurdity as the action would permit.
+
+It was six o'clock when I reached the hotel and walked straight up to my
+room in sulky isolation, looking neither to right nor left, and exchanging
+a word with nobody. I tossed the red box down on the table, and flung
+myself into an armchair. I had half a mind to send the box down to Marie
+Delhasse by the waiter--with my compliments; but my ill-humor did not
+carry me so far as thus to risk betraying her to her mother, and I
+perceived that I must have one more interview with her--and the sooner the
+better. I rang the bell, meaning to see if I could elicit from the waiter
+any information as to the state of affairs on the first floor and the
+prospect of finding Marie alone for ten minutes.
+
+I rang once--twice--thrice; the third was a mighty pull, and had at last
+the effect of bringing up my friend the waiter, breathless, hot, and
+disheveled.
+
+"Why do you keep me waiting like this?" I asked sternly.
+
+His puffs and pants prevented him from answering for a full half-minute.
+
+"I was busy on the first floor, sir," he protested at last. "I came at the
+very earliest moment."
+
+"What's going on on the first floor?"
+
+"The lady is in a great hurry, sir. She is going away, sir. She has been
+taking a hasty meal, and her carriage is ordered to be round at the door
+this very minute. And all the luggage had to be carried down, and--"
+
+I walked to the window, and, putting my head out, saw a closed carriage,
+with four trunks and some smaller packages on the roof, standing at the
+door.
+
+"Where are they going?" I asked, turning round.
+
+The waiter was gone! A bell ringing violently from below explained his
+disappearance, but did not soothe my annoyance. I rang my bell very
+forcibly again: the action was a welcome vent for my temper. Turning back
+to the window, I found the carriage still there. A second or two later,
+Mme. Delhasse, attended by the waiter who ought to have been looking after
+me, came out of the hotel and got into the carriage. She spoke to the
+waiter, and appeared to give him money. He bowed and closed the door. The
+driver started his horses and made off at a rapid pace toward the
+carriage-road down the hill. I watched till the vehicle was out of sight
+and then drew my head in, giving a low puzzled whistle and forgetting the
+better part of my irritation in the interest of this new development.
+Where was the old witch going--and why was she going alone?
+
+Again I rang my bell; but the waiter was at the door before it ceased
+tinkling.
+
+"Where's she going to?" I asked.
+
+"To the house of the Duke of Saint-Maclou, sir," he answered, wiping his
+brow and sighing for relief that he had got rid of her.
+
+"And the young lady--where is she?"
+
+"She has already gone, sir."
+
+"Already gone!" I cried. "Gone where? Gone when?"
+
+"About two hours ago, sir--very soon after I saw you go out, sir--a
+messenger brought a letter for the young lady. I took it upstairs; she was
+alone when I entered. When she looked at the address, sir, she made a
+little exclamation, and tore the note open in a manner that showed great
+agitation. She read it; and when she had read it stood still, holding it
+in her hand for a minute or two. She had turned pale and breathed quickly.
+Then she signed to me with her hand to go. But she stopped me with another
+gesture, and--and then, sir--"
+
+"Well, well, get on!" I cried.
+
+"Then, sir, she asked if you were in the hotel, and I said no--you had
+gone out, I did not know where. Upon that, she walked to the window, and
+stood looking out for a time. Then she turned round to me, and said: 'My
+mother was fatigued by her walk, and is sleeping. I am going out, but I do
+not wish her disturbed. I will write a note of explanation. Be so good as
+to cause it to be given to her when she wakes.' She was calm then, sir;
+she sat down and wrote, and sealed the note and gave it to me. Then she
+caught up her hat, which lay on the table, and her gloves; and then, sir,
+she walked out of the hotel."
+
+"Which way did she go?"
+
+"She went, sir, as if she were making for the footpath down the hill. An
+hour or more passed, and then madame's bell rang. I ran up and, finding
+her in the sitting room, I gave her the note."
+
+"And what did she say?"
+
+"She read it, and cried 'Ah!' in great satisfaction, and immediately
+ordered a carriage and that the maid should pack all her luggage and the
+young lady's. Oh! she was in a great hurry, and in the best of spirits;
+and she pressed us on so that I was not able to attend properly to you,
+sir. And finally, as you saw, she drove off to the house of the duke,
+still in high good humor."
+
+The waiter paused. I sat silent in thought.
+
+"Is there anything else you wish to know, sir?" asked the waiter.
+
+Then my much-tried temper gave way again.
+
+"I want to know what the devil it all means!" I roared.
+
+The waiter drew near, wearing a very sympathetic expression. I knew that
+he had always put me down as an admirer of Marie Delhasse. He saw in me
+now a beaten rival. Curiously I had something of the feeling myself.
+
+"There is one thing, sir," said he. "The stable-boy told me. The message
+for Mlle. Delhasse was brought from a carriage which waited at the bottom
+of the hill, out of sight of the town. And--well, sir, the servants wore
+no livery; but the boy declares that the horses were those of the Duke of
+Saint-Maclou."
+
+I muttered angrily to myself. The waiter, discreetly ignoring my words,
+continued:
+
+"And, indeed, sir, madame expected to meet her daughter. For I chanced to
+ask her if she would take with her a bouquet of roses which she had
+purchased in the town, and she answered: 'Give them to me. My daughter
+will like to have them.'"
+
+The waiter's conclusion was obvious. And yet I did not accept it. For why,
+if Marie were going to the duke's, should she not have aroused her mother
+and gone with her? That the duke had sent his carriage for her was likely
+enough; that he would cause it to wait outside the town was not
+impossible; that Marie had told her mother that she had gone to the duke's
+was also clear from that lady's triumphant demeanor. But that she had in
+reality gone, I could not believe. A sudden thought struck me.
+
+"Did Mlle. Delhasse," I asked, "send any answer to the note that came from
+the carriage?"
+
+"Ah, sir, I forgot. Certainly. She wrote an answer, and the messenger
+carried it away with him."
+
+"And did the boy you speak of see anything more of the carriage?"
+
+"He did not pass that way again, sir."
+
+My mind was now on the track of Marie's device. The duke had sent his
+carriage to fetch her. She, left alone, unable to turn to me for guidance,
+determined not to go; afraid to defy him--more afraid, no doubt, because
+she could no longer produce the necklace--had played a neat trick. She
+must have sent a message to the duke that she would come with her mother
+immediately that the necessary preparations could be made; she had then
+written a note to her mother to tell her that she had gone in the duke's
+carriage and looked to her mother to follow her. And having thus thrown
+both parties on a false scent, she had put on her hat and walked quietly
+out of the hotel. But, then, where had she walked to? My chain of
+inference was broken by that missing link. I looked up at the waiter. And
+then I cursed my carelessness. For the waiter's eyes were no longer fixed
+on my face, but were fastened in eloquent curiosity on the red box which
+lay on my table. To my apprehensive fancy the Cardinal's Necklace seemed
+to glitter through the case. That did not of course happen; but a jewel
+case is easy to recognize, and I knew in a moment that the waiter
+discerned the presence of precious stones. Our eyes met. In my puzzle I
+could do nothing but smile feebly and apologetically. The waiter smiled
+also--but his was a smile of compassion and condolence. He took a step
+nearer to me, and with infinite sympathy in his tone observed:
+
+"Ah, well, sir, do not despair! A gentleman like you will soon find
+another lady to value the present more."
+
+In spite of my vanity--and I was certainly not presenting myself in a very
+triumphant guise to the waiter's imagination--I jumped at the mistake.
+
+"They are capricious creatures!" said I with a shrug. "I'll trouble myself
+no more about them."
+
+"You're right, sir, you're right. It's one one day, and another another.
+It's a pity, sir, to waste thought on them--much more, good money. You
+will dine to-night, sir?" and his tone took a consolatory inflection.
+
+"Certainly I will dine," said I; and with a last nod of intelligence and
+commiseration, he withdrew.
+
+And then I leaped, like a wildcat, on the box that contained the
+Cardinal's Necklace, intent on stowing it away again in the seclusion of
+my coat-pocket. But again I stood with it in my hand--struck still with
+the thought that I could not now return it to Marie Delhasse, that she had
+vanished leaving it on my hands, and that, in all likelihood, in three or
+four hours' time the Duke of Saint-Maclou would be scouring the country
+and setting every spring in motion in the effort to find the truant lady,
+and--what I thought he would be at least anxious about--the truant
+necklace. For to give your family heirlooms away without recompense is a
+vexatious thing; and ladies who accept them and vanish with them into
+space can claim but small consideration. And, moreover, if the missing
+property chance to be found in the possession of a gentleman who is
+reluctant to explain his presence, who has masqueraded as a groom with
+intent to deceive the owner of the said property, and has no visible
+business to bring or keep him on the spot at all--when all this happens,
+it is apt to look very awkward for that gentleman.
+
+"You will regret it if you don't start with me;" so said Gustave de
+Berensac. The present was one of the moments in which I heartily agreed
+with his prescient prophecy. Human nature is a poor thing. To speak
+candidly, I cannot recollect that, amid my own selfish perplexities, I
+spared more than one brief moment to gladness that Marie Delhasse had
+eluded the pursuit of the Duke of Saint-Maclou. But I spared another to
+wishing that she had thought of telling me to what haven she was bound.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+A Very Clever Scheme.
+
+
+I must confess at once that I might easily have displayed more acumen, and
+that there would have been nothing wonderful in my discerning or guessing
+the truth about Marie Delhasse's movements. Yet the truth never occurred
+to me, never so much as suggested itself in the shape of a possible
+explanation. I cannot quite tell why; perhaps it conflicted too strongly
+with the idea of her which possessed me; perhaps it was characteristic of
+a temperament so different from my own that I could not anticipate it. At
+any rate, be the reason what it may, I did not seriously doubt that Marie
+Delhasse had cut the cords which bound her by a hasty flight from
+Avranches; and my conviction was deepened by my knowledge that an evening
+train left for Paris just about half an hour after Marie, having played
+her trick on her mother and on the Duke of Saint-Maclou, had walked out of
+the hotel, no man and no woman hindering her.
+
+Under these circumstances, my work--imposed and voluntary alike--was done;
+and the cheering influence of the dinner to which I sat down so awoke my
+mind to fresh agility that I found the task of disembarrassing myself of
+that old man of the sea--the Cardinal's Necklace--no longer so hopeless as
+it had appeared in the hungry disconsolate hour before my meal. Nay, I saw
+my way to performing, incidentally, a final service to Marie by creating
+in the mind of the duke such chagrin and anger as would, I hoped,
+disincline him from any pursuit of her. If I could, by one stroke, restore
+him his diamonds and convince him, not of Marie's virtue, but of her
+faithlessness, I trusted to be humbly instrumental in freeing her from his
+importunity, and of restoring the jewels to the duchess--nay, of restoring
+to her also the undisturbed possession of her home and of the society of
+her husband. At this latter prospect I told myself that I ought to feel
+very satisfied, and rather to my surprise found myself feeling not very
+dissatisfied; for most unquestionably the duchess had treated me
+villainously and had entirely failed to appreciate me. My face still went
+hot to think of the glance she had given Marie Delhasse's maladroit
+ambassador.
+
+After these reflections and a bottle of Burgundy (I will not apportion the
+credit) I rose from the table humming a tune and started to go upstairs,
+conning my scheme in a contented mind. As I passed through the hall the
+porter handed me a note, saying that a boy had left it and that there was
+no answer. I opened and read it; it was very short and it ran thus:
+
+I wish never to see you again. ELSA.
+
+Now "Elsa" (and I believe that I have not mentioned the fact before--an
+evidence, if any were needed, of my discretion) was the Christian name of
+the Duchess of Saint-Maclou. Picking up her dropped handkerchief as we
+rambled through the woods, I had seen the word delicately embroidered
+thereon, and I had not forgotten this chance information. But why--let
+those learned in the ways of women answer if they can--why, first, did she
+write at all? Why, secondly, did she tell me what had been entirely
+obvious from her demeanor? Why, thirdly, did she choose to affix to the
+document which put an end to our friendship a name which that friendship
+had never progressed far enough to justify me in employing? To none of
+these pertinent queries could I give a satisfactory reply. Yet, somehow,
+that "Elsa" standing alone, shorn of all aristocratic trappings, had a
+strange attraction for me, and carried with it a pleasure that the
+uncomplimentary tenor of the rest of the document did not entirely
+obliterate. "Elsa" wished never to see me again: that was bad; but it was
+"Elsa" who was so wicked as to wish that: that was good. And by a curious
+freak of the mind it occurred to me as a hardship that I had not received
+so much as a note of one line from--"Marie."
+
+"Nonsense!" said I aloud and peevishly; and I thrust the letter into my
+pocket, cheek by jowl with the Cardinal's Necklace. And being thus vividly
+reminded of the presence of that undesired treasure, I became clearly
+resolved that I must not be arrested for theft merely because the Duchess
+of Saint-Maclou chose (from hurry, or carelessness, or what motive you
+will) to sign a disagreeable and unnecessary communication with her
+Christian name and nothing more, nor because Mlle. Delhasse chose to
+vanish without a word of civil farewell. Let them go their ways--I did not
+know which of them annoyed me more. Notwithstanding the letter,
+notwithstanding the disappearance, my scheme must be carried out. And
+then--for home! But the conclusion came glum and displeasing.
+
+The scheme was very simple. I intended to spend the hours of the night in
+an excursion to the duke's house. I knew that old Jean slept in a detached
+cottage about half a mile from the _château_. Here I should find the old
+man. I would hand to him the necklace in its box, without telling him what
+the contents of the box were. Jean would carry the parcel to his master,
+and deliver with it a message to the effect that a gentleman who had left
+Avranches that afternoon had sent the parcel by a messenger to the duke,
+inasmuch as he had reason to believe that the article contained therein
+was the property of the duke and that the duke would probably be glad to
+have it restored to him. The significant reticence of this message was
+meant to inform the duke that Marie Delhasse was not so solitary in her
+flight but that she could find a cavalier to do her errands for her, and
+one who would not acquiesce in the retention of the diamonds. I imagined,
+with a great deal of pleasure, what the duke's feelings would be in face
+of the communication. Thus, then, the diamonds were to be restored, the
+duke disgusted, and I myself freed from all my troubles. I have often
+thought since that the scheme was really very ingenious, and showed a
+talent for intrigue which has been notably wanting in the rest of my
+humble career.
+
+The scheme once prosperously carried through, I should, of course, take my
+departure at the earliest moment on the following day. I might, or I might
+not, write a line of dignified remonstrance to the duchess, but I should
+make no attempt to see her; and I should most certainly go. Moreover, it
+would be a long while before I accepted any of her harum-scarum
+invitations again.
+
+"Elsa" indeed! Somehow I could not say it with quite the indignant scorn
+which I desired should be manifest in my tone. I have never been able to
+be indignant with the duchess; although I have laughed at her. Now I could
+be, and was, indignant with Marie Delhasse; though, in truth, her
+difficult position pleaded excuses for her treatment of me which the
+duchess could not advance.
+
+As the clock of the church struck ten I walked downstairs from my room,
+wearing a light short overcoat tightly buttoned up. I informed the waiter
+that I was likely to be late, secured the loan of a latchkey, and left my
+good friend under the evident impression that I was about to range the
+shores of the bay in love-lorn solitude. Then I took the footpath down the
+hill and, swinging along at a round pace, was fairly started on my
+journey. If the inference I drew from the next thing I saw were correct,
+it was just as well for me to be out of the way for a little while. For,
+when I was still about thirty yards from the main road, there dashed past
+the end of the lane leading up the hill a carriage and pair, traveling at
+full speed. I could not see who rode inside; but two men sat on the box,
+and there was luggage on the top. I could not be sure in the dim light,
+but I had a very strong impression that the carriage was the same as that
+which had conveyed Mme. Delhasse out of my sight earlier in the evening.
+If it were so, and if the presence of the luggage indicated that of its
+owner, the good lady, arriving alone, must have met with the scantest
+welcome from the duke. And she would return in a fury of anger and
+suspicion. I was glad not to meet her; for if she were searching for
+explanation, I fancied, from glances she had given me, that I was likely
+to come in for a share of her attention. In fact, she might reasonably
+have supposed that I was interested in her daughter; nor, indeed, would
+she have been wrong so far.
+
+Briskly I pursued my way, and in something over an hour I reached the turn
+in the road and, setting my face inland, began to climb the hill. A mile
+further on I came on a bypath, and not doubting from my memory of the
+direction, that this must be a short cut to the house, I left the road and
+struck along the narrow wooded track. But, although shorter than the road,
+it was not very direct, and I found myself thinking it very creditable to
+the topographical instinct of my friend and successor, Pierre, that he
+should have discovered on a first visit, and without having been to the
+house, that this was the best route to follow. With the knowledge of where
+the house lay, however, it was not difficult to keep right, and another
+forty minutes brought me, now creeping along very cautiously, alertly, and
+with open ears, to the door of old Jean's little cottage. No doubt he was
+fast asleep in his bed, and I feared the need of a good deal of noisy
+knocking before he could be awakened from a peasant's heavy slumber.
+
+My delight was therefore great when I discovered that--either because he
+trusted his fellow-men, or because he possessed nothing in the least worth
+stealing--he had left his door simply on the latch. I lifted the latch and
+walked in. A dim lantern burned on a little table near the smoldering
+log-fire. Yet the light was enough to tell me that my involuntary host was
+not in the room. I passed across its short breadth to a door in the
+opposite wall. The door yielded to a push; all was dark inside. I listened
+for a sleeper's breathing, but heard nothing. I returned, took up the
+lantern, and carried it with me into the inner room. I held it above my
+head, and it enabled me to see the low pallet-bed in the corner. But Jean
+was not lying in the bed--nay, it was clear that he had not lain on the
+bed all that night. Yet his bedtime was half-past eight or nine, and it
+was now hard on one o'clock. Jean was "making a night of it," that seemed
+very clear. But what was the business or pleasure that engaged him? I
+admit that I was extremely annoyed. My darling scheme, on which I had
+prided myself so much, was tripped up by the trifling accident of Jean's
+absence.
+
+What in the world, I asked again, kept the old man from his bed? It
+suddenly struck me that he might, by the duke's orders, have accompanied
+Mme. Delhasse back to Avranches, in order to be able to report to his
+master any news that came to light there. He might well have been the
+second man on the box. This reflection removed my surprise at his absence,
+but not my vexation. I did not know what to do! Should I wait? But he
+might not be back till morning. Wearily, in high disgust, I recognized
+that the great scheme had, for tonight at least, gone awry, and that I
+must tramp back to Avranches, carrying my old man of the sea, the
+Cardinal's Necklace. For Jean could not read, and it was useless to leave
+the parcel with written directions.
+
+I went into the outer room, and set the lantern in its place; I took a
+pull at my flask, and smoked a pipe. Then, with a last sigh of vexation, I
+grasped my stick in my hand, rose to my feet, and moved toward the door.
+
+Ah! Hark! There was a footstep outside.
+
+"Thank Heaven, here comes the old fool!" I murmured.
+
+The step came on, and, as it came, I listened to it; and as I listened to
+it, the sudden satisfaction that had filled me as suddenly died away; for,
+if that were the step of old Jean, may I see no difference between the
+footfalls of an elephant and of a ballet-dancer! And then, before I had
+time to form any plan, or to do anything save stand staring in the middle
+of the floor, the latch was lifted again, the door opened, and in
+walked--the Duke of Saint-Maclou!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+As a Man Possessed.
+
+
+The dim light served no further than to show that a man was there.
+
+"Well, Jean, what news?" asked the duke, drawing the door close behind
+him.
+
+"I am not Jean," said I.
+
+"Then who the devil are you, and what are you doing here?" He advanced and
+held up the lantern. "Why, what are you hanging about for?" he exclaimed
+the next moment, with a start of surprise.
+
+"And I am not George Sampson either," said I composedly. I had no mind to
+play any more tricks. As I must meet him, it should be in my own
+character.
+
+The duke studied me from top to toe. He twirled his mustache, and a slight
+smile appeared on his full lips.
+
+"Yet I know you as George Sampson, I think, sir," said he, but in an
+altered tone. He spoke now as though to an equal--to an enemy perhaps, but
+to an equal.
+
+I was in some perplexity; but a moment later he relieved me.
+
+"You need trouble yourself with no denials," he said. "Lafleur's story of
+the gentleman at Avranches, with the description of him, struck me as
+strange; and for the rest--there were two things."
+
+He seated himself on a stool. I leaned against the wall.
+
+"In the first place," he continued, "I know my wife pretty well; in the
+second, a secret known to four maidservants-- Really, sir, you were very
+confiding!"
+
+"I was doing no wrong," said I; though not, I confess, in a very convinced
+tone.
+
+"Then why the masquerade?" he answered quickly, hitting my weak point.
+
+"Because you were known to be unreasonable."
+
+His smile broadened a little.
+
+"It's the old crime of husbands, isn't it?" he asked. "Well, sir, I'm no
+lawyer, and it's not my purpose to question you on that matter. I will put
+you to no denials."
+
+I bowed. The civility of his demeanor was a surprise to me.
+
+"If that were the only affair, I need not keep you ten minutes," he went
+on. "At least, I presume that my friend would find you when he wanted to
+deliver a message from me?"
+
+"Certainly. But may I ask why, if that is your intention, you have delayed
+so long? You guessed I was at Avranches. Why not have sent to me?"
+
+The duke tugged his mustache.
+
+"I do not know your name, sir," he remarked.
+
+"My name is Aycon."
+
+"I know the name," and he bowed slightly. "Well, I didn't send to you at
+Avranches because I was otherwise occupied."
+
+"I am glad, sir, that you take it so lightly," said I.
+
+"And by the way, Mr. Aycon, before you question me, isn't there a question
+I might ask you? How came you here to-night?" And, as he spoke, his smile
+vanished.
+
+"I have nothing to say, beyond that I hoped to see your servant Jean."
+
+"For what purpose? Come, sir, for what purpose? I have a right to ask for
+what purpose." And his tone rose in anger.
+
+I was going to give him a straightforward answer. My hand was actually on
+the way to the spot where I felt the red box pressing against my side,
+when he rose from his seat and strode toward me; and a sudden passion
+surged in his voice.
+
+"Answer me! answer me!" he cried. "No, I'm not asking about my wife; I
+don't care a farthing for that empty little parrot. Answer me, sir, as you
+value your life! What do you know of Marie Delhasse?"
+
+And he stood before me with uplifted hand, as though he meant to strike
+me. I did not move, and we looked keenly into one another's eyes. He
+controlled himself by a great effort, but his hands trembled, as he
+continued:
+
+"That old hag who came to-night and dared to show her filthy face here
+without her daughter--she told me of your talks and walks. The girl was
+ready to come. Who stopped her? Who turned her mind? Who was there but
+you--you--you?"
+
+And again his passion overcame him, and he was within an ace of dashing
+his fist in my face.
+
+My hands hung at my side, and I leaned easily against the wall.
+
+"Thank God," said I, "I believe I stopped her! I believe I turned her
+mind. I did my best, and except me, nobody was there."
+
+"You admit it?"
+
+"I admit the crime you charged me with. Nothing more."
+
+"What have you done with her? Where is she now?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Ah!" he cried, in angry incredulity. "You don't know, don't you?"
+
+"And if I knew, I wouldn't tell you."
+
+"I'm sure of that," he sneered. "It is knowledge a man keeps to himself,
+isn't it? But, by Heaven, you shall tell me before you leave this place,
+or--"
+
+"We have already one good ground of quarrel," I interrupted. "What need is
+there of another?"
+
+"A good ground of quarrel?" he repeated, in a questioning tone.
+
+Honestly I believe that he had for the moment forgotten. His passion for
+Marie Delhasse and fury at the loss of her filled his whole mind.
+
+"Oh, yes," he went on. "About the duchess? True, Mr. Aycon. That will
+serve--as well as the truth."
+
+"If that is not a real ground, I know none," said I.
+
+"Haven't you told me that you kept her from me?"
+
+"For no purposes of my own."
+
+He drew back a step, smiling scornfully.
+
+"A man is bound to protest that the lady is virtuous," said he; "but need
+he insist so much on his own virtue?"
+
+"As it so happens," I observed, "it's not a question of virtue."
+
+I suppose there was something in my tone that caught his attention, for
+his scornful air was superseded by an intent puzzled gaze, and his next
+question was put in lower tones:
+
+"What did you stay in Avranches for?"
+
+"Because your wife asked me," said I. The answer was true enough, but, as
+I wished to deal candidly with him, I added: "And, later on, Mlle.
+Delhasse expressed a similar desire."
+
+"My wife and Mlle. Delhasse! Truly you are a favorite!"
+
+"Honest men happen to be scarce in this neighborhood," said I. I was
+becoming rather angry.
+
+"If you are one, I hope to be able to make them scarcer by one more," said
+the duke.
+
+"Well, we needn't wrangle over it any more," said I; and I sat down on the
+lid of a chest that stood by the hearth. But the duke sprang forward and
+seized me by the arm, crying again in ungovernable rage:
+
+"Where is she?"
+
+"She is safe from you, I hope."
+
+"Aye--and you'll keep her safe!"
+
+"As I say, I know nothing about her, except that she'd be an honest girl
+if you'd let her alone."
+
+He was still holding my arm, and I let him hold it: the man was hardly
+himself under the slavery of his passion. But again, at my words, the
+wonder which I had seen before stole into his eyes.
+
+"You must know where she is," he said, with a straining look at my face,
+"but--but--"
+
+He broke off, leaving his sentence unfinished. Then he broke out again:
+
+"Safe from me? I would make life a heaven for her!"
+
+"That's the old plea," said I.
+
+"Is a thing a lie because it's old? There's nothing in the world I would
+not give her--nothing I have not offered her." Then he looked at me,
+repeating again: "You must know where she is." And then he whispered: "Why
+aren't you with her?"
+
+"I have no wish to be with her," said I. Any other reason would not have
+appealed to him.
+
+He sank down on the stool again and sat in a heap, breathing heavily and
+quickly. He was wonderfully transfigured, and I hardly knew in him the
+cold harsh man who had been my temporary master and was the mocking
+husband of the duchess. Say all that may be said about his passion, I
+could not doubt that it was life and death to him. Justification he had
+none; excuse I found in my heart for him, for it struck me--coming over
+me in a strange sudden revelation as I sat and looked at him--that he had
+given such love to the duchess, the gay little lady would have been
+marvelously embarrassed. It was hers to dwell in a radiant mid-ether,
+neither to mount to heaver nor descend to hell. And in one of theses two
+must dwell such feelings as the dukes's.
+
+He roused himself, and leaning forward spoke to me again:
+
+"You've lived in the same house with her and talked to her. You swear you
+don't love her? What? Has Elsa's little figure come between?"
+
+His tone was full of scorn. He seemed angry with me, not for presuming to
+love his wife (nay, he would not believe that), but for being so blind as
+not to love Marie.
+
+"I didn't love her!" I answered, with a frown on my face and slow words.
+
+"You have never felt attracted to her?"
+
+I did not answer that question. I sat frowning in silence till the duke
+spoke again, in a low hoarse whisper:
+
+"And she? What says she to you?"
+
+I looked up with a start, and met his searching wrathful gaze. I shook my
+head; his question was new to me--new and disturbing.
+
+"I don't know," said I; and on that we sat in silence for many moments.
+
+Then he rose abruptly and stood beside me.
+
+"Mr. Aycon," he said, in the smoother tones in which he had begun our
+curious interview, "I came near a little while ago to doing a ruffianly
+thing, of a sort I am not wont to do. We must fight out our quarrel in the
+proper way. Have you any friends in the neighborhood?"
+
+"I am quite unknown," I answered.
+
+He thought for an instant, and then continued:
+
+"There is a regiment quartered at Pontorson, and I have acquaintances among
+the officers. If agreeable to you, we will drive over there; we shall find
+gentlemen ready to assist us."
+
+"You are determined to fight?" I asked.
+
+"Yes," he said, with a snap of his lips. "Have we not matters enough and
+to spare to fight about?"
+
+"I can't of course deny that you have a pretext."
+
+"And I, Mr. Aycon, know that I have also a cause. Will this morning suit
+you?"
+
+"It is hard on two now."
+
+"Precisely. We have time for a little rest; then I will order the carriage
+and we will drive together to Pontorson."
+
+"You mean that I should stay in your house?"
+
+"If you will so far honor me. I wish to settle this affair at once, so as
+to be moving."
+
+"I can but accept."
+
+"Indeed you could hardly get back to Avranches, if, as I presume, you came
+on foot. Ah! you've never told me why you wished to see Jean;" and he
+turned a questioning look on me again, as he walked toward the door of the
+cottage.
+
+"It was--" I began.
+
+"Stay; you shall tell me in the house. Shall I lead the way? Ah, but you
+know it!" and he smiled grimly.
+
+With a bow, I preceded him along the little path where I had once waited
+for the duchess, and where Pierre, the new servant, had found me. No words
+passed between us as we went. The duke advanced to the door and unlocked
+it. We went in, nobody was about, and we crossed the dimly lighted hall
+into the small room where supper had been laid for three (three who should
+have been four) on the night of my arrival. Meat, bread, and wine stood on
+the table now, and with a polite gesture the duke invited me to a repast.
+I was tired and hungry, and I took a hunch of bread and poured out some
+wine.
+
+"What keeps Jean, I wonder?" mused the duke, as he sat down. "Perhaps he
+has found her!" and a gleam of eager hope flashed from his eyes.
+
+I made no comment--where was the profit in more sparring of words? I
+munched my bread and drank my wine, thinking, by a whimsical turn of
+thought, of Gustave de Berensac and his horror at the table laid for
+three. Soon I laid down my napkin, and the duke held out his cigarette
+case toward me:
+
+"And now, Mr. Aycon, if I'm not keeping you up--"
+
+"I do not feel sleepy," said I.
+
+"It is the same for both of us," he reminded me, shrugging his shoulders.
+"Well, then, if you are willing--of course you can refuse if you choose--I
+should like to hear what brought you to Jean's quarters on foot from
+Avranches in the middle of the night."
+
+"You shall hear. I did not desire to meet you, if I could avoid it, and
+therefore I sought old Jean, with the intention of making him a messenger
+to you."
+
+"For what purpose?"
+
+"To restore to you something which has been left on my hands and to which
+you have a better right than I."
+
+"Pray, what is that?" he asked, evidently puzzled. The truth never crossed
+his mind.
+
+"This," said I; and I took the red leathern box out of my pocket, and set
+it down on the table in front of the duke. And I put my cigarette between
+my lips and leaned back in my chair.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+A Timely Truce.
+
+
+I think that at first the Duke of Saint-Maclou could not, as the old
+saying goes, believe his eyes. He sat looking from me to the red box, and
+from the red box back to my face. Then he stretched out a slow, wavering
+hand and drew the box nearer to him till it rested in the circle of his
+spread-out arm and directly under his poring gaze. He seemed to shrink
+from opening it; but at last he pressed the spring with a covert timid
+movement of his finger, and the lid, springing open, revealed the
+Cardinal's Necklace.
+
+It seemed to be more brilliant than I had ever seen it, in the light of
+the lamp that stood on the table by us; and the duke looked at it as a
+magician might at the amulet which had failed him, or a warrior at the
+talisman that had proved impotent. And I, moved to a sudden anger with him
+for tempting the girl with such a bribe, said bitterly and scornfully,
+with fresh indignation rising in me:
+
+"It was a high bid! Strange that you could not buy her with it!"
+
+He paid no visible heed to my taunt; and his tone was dull, bewildered,
+and heavy as, holding the box still in his curved arm, he asked slowly:
+
+"Did she give it to you to give to me?"
+
+"She gave it to me to give to your wife." He looked up with a start. "But
+your wife would not take it of her. And when I returned from my errand she
+was gone--where I know not. So I decided to send it back to you."
+
+He did not follow, or took very little interest in my brief history. He
+did not even reiterate his belief that I knew Marie's whereabouts. His
+mind was fixed on another point.
+
+"How did you know she had it?" he asked.
+
+"I found her with it on the table before her--"
+
+"You found her?"
+
+"Yes; I went into her sitting room and found her as I say; and she was
+sobbing; and I got from her the story of it."
+
+"She told you that?"
+
+"Yes; and she feared to send it back, lest you should come and overbear
+her resistance. I supposed you had frightened her. But neither would she
+keep it--"
+
+"You bade her not," he put in, in a quick low tone.
+
+"If you like, I prayed her not. Did it need much cleverness to see what
+was meant by keeping it?"
+
+His mouth twitched. I saw the tempest rising again in him. But for a
+little longer he held it down.
+
+"Do you take me for a fool?" he asked.
+
+"Am I a boy--do I know nothing of women? And do I know nothing of men?"
+
+And he ended in a miserable laugh, and then fell again to tugging his
+mustache with his shaking hand.
+
+"You know," said I, "what's bad in both; and no doubt that's a good deal."
+
+In that very room the duchess had called Gustave de Berensac a preacher.
+Her husband had much the same reproach for me.
+
+"Sermons are fine from your mouth," he muttered.
+
+And then his self-control gave way. With a sweep of his arm he drove the
+necklace from him, so that the box whizzed across the table, balanced a
+moment on the edge, and fell crashing on the ground, while the duke cried:
+
+"God's curse on it and you! You've taken her from me!"
+
+There was danger--there was something like madness--in his aspect as he
+rose, and, facing me where I sat, went on in tones still low, but charged
+with a rage that twisted his features and lined his white cheeks:
+
+"Are you a liar or a fool? Have you taken the game for yourself, or are
+you fool enough not to see that she has despised me--and that miserable
+necklace--for you--because you've caught her fancy? My God! and I've given
+my life to it for two years past! And you step in. Why didn't you keep to
+my wife? You were welcome to her--though I'd have shot you all the same
+for my name's sake. You must have Marie too, must you?"
+
+He was mad, if ever man was mad, at that moment. But his words were strong
+with the force and clear with the insight of his passion; and the rush of
+them carried my mind along, and swept it with them to their own
+conclusion. Nay, I will not say that--for I doubted still; but I doubted
+as a man who would deny, not as one who laughs away, a thought. I sat
+silent, looking, not at him, but at the Cardinal's Necklace on the floor.
+
+Then, suddenly, while I was still busy with the thought and dazzled at the
+revelation, while I sat bemused, before I could move, his fingers were on
+my throat, and his face within a foot of mine, glaring and working as he
+sent his strength into his arms to throttle me. For his wife--and his
+name--he would fight a duel: for the sake of Marie Delhasse he would do
+murder on an invited stranger in his house. I struggled to my feet, his
+grip on my throat; and I stretched out my hands and caught him under the
+shoulders in the armpits, and flung him back against the table, and thence
+he reeled on to a large cabinet that was by the wall, and Stood leaning
+against it.
+
+"I knew you were a villain," I said, "but I thought you were a gentleman."
+(I did not stop to consider the theory implied in that.)
+
+He leaned against the cabinet, red with his exertion and panting; but he
+did not come at me again. He dashed his hand across his forehead and then
+he said in hoarse breathless tones:
+
+"You shan't leave here alive!"
+
+Then, with a start of recollection, he thrust his hand into his pocket and
+brought out a key. He put it in the lock of a drawer of the cabinet,
+fumbling after the aperture and missing it more than once. Then he opened
+the drawer, took out a pair of dueling pistols, and laid them on the
+table.
+
+"They're loaded," he said. "Examine them for yourself."
+
+I did not move; but I took my little friend out of my pocket.
+
+"If I'm attacked," said I, "I shall defend myself; but I'm not going to
+fight a duel here, without witnesses, at the dead of night, in your
+house."
+
+"Call it what you like then," said he; and he snatched up a pistol from
+the table.
+
+He was beyond remonstrance, influence, or control. I believe that in a
+moment he would have fired; and I must have fired also, or gone to my
+death as a sheep to the slaughter. But as he spoke there came a sound,
+just audible, which made him pause, with his right hand that held the
+pistol raised halfway to the level of his shoulder.
+
+Faint as the sound was, slight as the interruption it would seem to offer
+to the full career of a madman's fury, it was yet enough to check him, to
+call him back to consciousness of something else in the world than his
+balked passion and the man whom he deemed to have thwarted it.
+
+"What's that?" he whispered.
+
+It was the lowest, softest knock at the door--a knock that even in asking
+attention almost shrank from being heard. It was repeated, louder, yet
+hardly audibly. The duke, striding on the tip of his toes, transferred the
+pistols from the table back to the drawer, and stood with his hand inside
+the open drawer: I slid my weapon into my pocket; and then he trod softly
+across the floor to the door.
+
+"One moment!" I whispered.
+
+And I stooped and picked up the Cardinal's Necklace and put it back where
+it had lain before, pushing its box under the table by a hasty movement of
+my foot--for the duke, after a nod of intelligence, was already opening
+the door. I drew back in the shadow behind it and waited.
+
+"What do you want?" asked the duke.
+
+And then a girl stepped hastily into the room and closed the door quickly
+and noiselessly behind her. I saw her face: she was my old friend Suzanne.
+When her eyes fell on me, she started in surprise, as well she might; but
+the caution and fear, which had made her knock almost noiseless, her tread
+silent, and her face all astrain with alert alarm, held her back from any
+cry.
+
+"Never mind him," said the duke. "That's nothing to do with you. What do
+you want?"
+
+"Hush! Speak low. I thought you would still be up, as you told me to
+refill the lamp and have it burning. There's--there's something going on."
+
+She spoke in a quick, urgent whisper, and in her agitation remembered no
+deference in her words of address. "Going on? Where? Do you mean here?"
+
+"No, no! I heard nothing here. In the duchess's dressing-room: it is just
+under the room where I sleep. I awoke about half an hour ago, and I heard
+sounds from there. There was a sound as of muffled hammering, and then a
+noise, like the rasping of a file; and I thought I heard people moving
+about, but very cautiously."
+
+The duke and I were both listening attentively.
+
+"I was frightened, and lay still a little; but then I got up--for the
+sounds went on--and put on some clothes, and came down--"
+
+"Why didn't you rouse the men? It must be thieves."
+
+"I did go to the men's room; but their door was locked, and I could not
+make them hear. I did not dare to knock loud; but I saw a light in the
+room, under the door; and if they'd been awake they would have heard."
+
+"Perhaps they weren't there," I suggested.
+
+Suzanne turned a sudden look on me. Then she said:
+
+"The safe holding the jewels is fixed in the wall of the duchess' dressing
+room. And--and Lafleur knows it."
+
+The duke had heard the story with a frowning face; but now a smile
+appeared on his lips, and he said:
+
+"Ah, yes! The jewels are there!"
+
+"The--the Cardinal's Necklace," whispered Suzanne.
+
+"True," said the duke; and his eyes met mine, and we both smiled. A few
+minutes ago it had not seemed likely that I should share a joke--even a
+rather grim joke--with him.
+
+"Mr. Aycon," said he, "are you inclined to help me to look into this
+matter? It may be only the girl's fancy--"
+
+"No, no; I heard plainly," Suzanne protested eagerly.
+
+"But one can never trust these rascally men-servants."
+
+"I am quite ready," said I.
+
+"Our business," said he, "will wait."
+
+"It will be the better for waiting."
+
+He hesitated a moment; then he assented gravely:
+
+"You're right--much better."
+
+He took a pistol out of the drawer, and shut and locked the drawer. Then
+he turned to Suzanne and said:
+
+"You had better go back to bed."
+
+"I daren't, I daren't!"
+
+"Then stay here and keep quiet. Mind, not a sound!"
+
+"Give me a pistol."
+
+He unlocked the drawer again, and gave her what she asked. Then signing to
+me to follow him, he opened the door, and we stepped together into the
+dark hall, the duke laying his hand on my arm and whispering:
+
+"They're after the necklace."
+
+We groped slowly, with careful noiselessness, across the hall to the foot
+of the great staircase. There we paused and listened. There was nothing to
+be heard. We climbed the first flight of stairs, and the duke turned sharp
+to the right. We were now in a short corridor which ran north and south;
+three yards ahead of us was another turn, leading to the west wing of the
+house. There was a window by us; the duke gently opened it; and over
+against us, across the base of the triangle formed by the building, was
+another window, four or five yards away. The window was heavily curtained;
+no light could be seen through it. But as we stood listening, the sounds
+began--first the gentle muffled hammering, then the sound of the file. The
+duke still held my arm, and we stood motionless. The sounds went on for a
+while. Then they ceased. There was a pause of complete stillness. Then a
+sharp, though not loud, click! And, upon this, the duke whispered to me:
+
+"They've got the safe open. Now they'll find the small portable safe which
+holds the necklace."
+
+And I could make out an amused smile on his pale face. Before I could
+speak, he turned and began to crawl away. I followed. We descended the
+stairs again to the hall. At the foot he turned sharply to the left, and
+came to a standstill in a recess under the staircase.
+
+"We'll wait here. Is your pistol all right?"
+
+"Yes, all right," said I.
+
+And, as I spoke, the faintest sound spread from the top of the stairs, and
+a board creaked under the steps of a man. I was close against the duke,
+and I felt him quiver with a stifled laugh. Meanwhile the Cardinal's
+Necklace pressed hard against my ribs under my tightly buttoned coat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+For an Empty Box.
+
+
+When I look back on the series of events which I am narrating and try to
+recover the feelings with which I was affected in its passage, I am almost
+amazed and in some measure ashamed to find how faint is my abhorrence of
+the Duke of Saint-Maclou. My indignation wants not the bridle but the
+whip, and I have to spur myself on to a becoming vehemence of disapproval.
+I attribute my sneaking kindness for him--for to that and not much less I
+must plead guilty--partly indeed to the revelation of a passion in him
+that seemed to leave him hardly responsible for the wrong he plotted, but
+far more to the incidents of this night, in which I was in a manner his
+comrade and the partner with him in an adventure. To have stood shoulder
+to shoulder with a man blinds his faults--and the duke bore himself, not
+merely with the coolness and courage which I made no doubt of his
+displaying, but with a readiness and zest remarkable at any time, but more
+striking when they followed on the paroxysm to which I had seen him
+helplessly subject. These indications of good in the man mollified my
+dislike and attached me to him by a bond which begot toleration and
+resists even the clearer and more piercing analysis of memory. Therefore,
+when those who speak to me of what he did and sought to do say what I
+cannot help admitting to be true, I hold my peace, thinking that the duke
+and I have played as partners as well as on hostile sides, and that I,
+being no saint, may well hold my tongue about the faults of a
+fellow-sinner. Moreover,--and this is the thing of all strongest to temper
+or to twist my judgment of him,--I feel often as though it were he who
+laid his finger on my blind eyes and bade me look up and see where lay my
+happiness. For it is strange how long a man can go without discovering his
+own undermost desire. Yet, when seen, how swift it grows!
+
+Quiet and still we stood in the bay of the staircase, and the steps over
+our heads creaked under the feet of the men who came down. The duke's hand
+was on my arm, restraining me, and he held it there till the feet had
+passed above us and the stealthy tread landed on the marble flagging of
+the hall. We thrust our heads out and peered through the darkness. I saw
+the figures of two men, one following the other toward the front door;
+this the first and taller unfastened and noiselessly opened; and he and
+his fellow, whom, by the added light which entered, I perceived to be
+carrying a box or case of moderate size, waited for a moment on the
+threshold. Then they passed out, drawing the door close after them.
+
+Still the duke held me back, and we rested where we were three or four
+minutes. Then he whispered, "Come," and we stole across the hall after
+them and found ourselves outside. It must have been about half-past two
+o'clock in the morning; there was no moon and it was rather dark. The duke
+turned sharp to the left and led me to the bypath, and there, a couple of
+hundred yards ahead of us, we saw a cube of light that came from a dark
+lantern.
+
+The duke's face was dimly visible, and an amused smile played on his lips
+as he said softly:
+
+"Lafleur and Pierre! They think they've got the necklace!"
+
+Was this the meaning of Pierre's appearance in the role of my successor?
+The idea suggested itself to me in a moment, and I strove to read my
+companion's face for a confirmation.
+
+"We'll see where they go," he whispered, and then laid his finger on his
+lips. Amusement sounded in his voice; indeed it was impossible not to
+perceive the humor of the position, when I felt the Cardinal's Necklace
+against my own ribs.
+
+We were walking now under cover of the trees which lined the sides of the
+path, so that no backward glance could discover us to the thieves; and I
+was wondering how long we were thus to dog their steps, when suddenly they
+turned to the left about fifty yards short of the spot where old Jean's
+cottage stood, and disappeared from our sight. We emerged into the path,
+the duke taking the lead. He was walking more briskly now, and I saw him
+examine his pistol. When we came where the fellows had turned, we followed
+in their track.
+
+The first distant hint of approaching morning caught the tops of the trees
+above us, turning them from black to a deep chill gray, as we paused to
+listen. Our pursuit had brought us directly behind the cottage, which now
+stood about a hundred yards on the right; and then we came upon them--or
+rather suddenly stopped and crouched down to avoid coming upon them--where
+they were squatting on the ground with a black iron box between them, and
+the lantern's light thrown on the keyhole of the box. Lafleur held the
+lantern; Pierre's hand was near the lock, and I presumed--I could not
+see--that he held some instrument with which he meant to open it. A ring
+of trees framed the picture, and the men sat in a hollow, well hidden from
+the path even had it been high day.
+
+The Duke of Saint-Maclou touched my arm, and I leaned forward to look in
+his face. He nodded, and, brushing aside the trees, we sprang out upon the
+astonished fellows. Fora moment they did not move, struck motionless with
+surprise, while we stood over them, pistols in hand. We had caught them
+fair and square. Expecting no interruption, they had guarded against none.
+Their weapons were in their pockets, their hands busy with their job. They
+sprang up the next moment; but the duke's muzzle covered Lafleur, and mine
+was leveled full at Pierre. A second later Lafleur fell on his knees with
+a cry for mercy; the little man stood quite still, his arms by his side
+and the iron box hard by his feet. Lafleur's protestations and
+lamentations began to flow fast. Pierre shrugged his shoulders. The duke
+advanced, and I kept pace with him.
+
+"Keep your eye on that fellow, Mr. Aycon," said the duke; and then he put
+his left hand in his pocket, took out a key and flung it in Lafleur's
+face. It struck him sharply between the eyes, and he whined again.
+
+"Open the box," said the duke. "Open it--do you hear? This instant!"
+
+With shaking hands the fellow dragged the box from where it lay by
+Pierre's feet, and dropping on his knees began to fumble with the lock. At
+last he contrived to unlock it, and raised the lid. The duke sprang
+forward and, catching him by the nape of the neck, crammed his head down
+into the box, bidding him, "Look--look--look!" And while he said it he
+laughed, and took advantage of Lafleur's posture to give him four or five
+hearty kicks.
+
+"It's empty!" cried Lafleur, surprise rescuing him for an instant from the
+other emotions to which his position gave occasion. And, as he spoke, for
+the first time Pierre started, turning an eager gaze toward the box.
+
+"Yes, it's empty," said the duke. "The necklace isn't there, is it? Now,
+tell me all about it, or I'll put a bullet through your head!"
+
+Then the story came: disentangled from the excuses and prayers, it was
+simply that Pierre was no footman but a noted thief--that he had long
+meditated an attack on the Cardinal's Necklace; had made Lafleur's
+acquaintance in Paris, corrupted his facile virtue, and, with the aid of
+forged testimonials, presented himself in the character in which I had
+first made his acquaintance. The rascals had counted on the duke's
+preoccupation with Marie Delhasse for their opportunity. The duke smiled
+to hear it. Pierre listened to the whole story without a word of protest
+or denial; his accomplice's cowardly attempt to present him as the only
+culprit gained no more notice than another shrug and a softly muttered
+oath. "Destiny," the little man seemed to say in the eloquent movement of
+his shoulders; while the growing light showed his beady eyes fixed, full
+and unfaltering, on me.
+
+Lafleur's prayers died away. The duke, still smiling, set his pistol
+against the wretch's head.
+
+"That's what you deserve," said he.
+
+And Lafleur, groveling, caught him by the knees.
+
+"Don't kill me! Don't kill me!" he implored.
+
+"Why not?" asked the duke, in the tone of a man willing to hear the other
+side, but certain that he would not be convinced by it. "Why not? We find
+you stealing--and we shoot you as you try to escape. I see nothing
+unnatural or illegal in it, Lafleur. Nor do I see anything in favor of
+leaving you alive."
+
+And the pistol pressed still on Lafleur's forehead. Whether his master
+meant to shoot, I know not--although I believe he did. But Lafleur had
+little doubt of his purpose; for he hastened to play his best card, and,
+clinging still to the duke's knees, cried desperately:
+
+"If you'll spare me, I'll tell you where she is!"
+
+The duke's arm fell to his side; and in a changed voice, from which the
+cruel bantering had fled, while eager excitement filled its place, he
+cried:
+
+"What? Where who is?"
+
+"The lady--Mlle. Delhasse. A girl I know--there in Avranches--saw her go.
+She is there now."
+
+"Where, man, where?" roared the duke, stamping his foot, and menacing the
+wretch again with his pistol.
+
+I turned to listen, forgetful of quiet little Pierre and his alert beady
+eyes; yet I kept the pistol on him.
+
+And Lafleur cried:
+
+"At the convent--at the convent, on the shores of the bay!"
+
+"My God!" cried the duke, and his eyes suddenly turned and flashed on
+mine; and I saw that the necklace was forgotten, that our partnership was
+ended, and that I again, and no longer the cowering creature before him,
+was the enemy. And I also, hearing that Marie Delhasse was at the convent,
+was telling myself that I was a fool not to have thought of it before, and
+wondering what new impulse had seized the duke's wayward mind.
+
+Thus neither the duke nor I was attending to the business of the moment.
+But there was a man of busy brain, whose life taught him to profit by the
+slips of other men and to let pass no opportunities. Our carelessness gave
+one now--a chance of escape, and a chance of something else too. For,
+while my negligent hand dropped to my side and my eyes were seeking to
+read the duke's face, the figure opposite me must have been moving. Softly
+must a deft hand have crept to a pocket; softly came forth the hidden
+weapon. There was a report loud and sudden; and then another. And with the
+first, Lafleur, who was kneeling at the duke's feet and looking up to see
+how his shaft had sped, flung his arms wildly over his head, gave a
+shriek, and fell dead--his head, half-shattered, striking the iron box as
+he fell sideways in a heap on the ground.
+
+The duke sprang back with an oath, whose sound was engulfed in the second
+discharge of Pierre's pistol: and I felt myself struck in the right arm;
+and my weapon fell to the ground, while I clutched the wounded limb with
+my left hand.
+
+The duke, after a moment's hesitation and bewilderment, raised his pistol
+and fired; but the active little scoundrel was safe among the trees, and
+we heard the twigs cracking and the leaves rustling as he pushed his way
+through the wood. He was gone--scot free for us, but with his score to
+Lafleur well paid. I swayed where I stood, to and fro: the pain was
+considerable, and things seemed to go round before my eyes; yet I turned
+to my companion, crying:
+
+"After him! He'll get off! I'm hit; I can't run!"
+
+The duke stood still, frowning; then he slowly dropped his smoking pistol
+into his pocket. For a moment longer he stood, and a smile broadened on
+his face as he raised his eyes to me.
+
+"Let him," he said briefly; and his glance rested on me for a moment in
+defiant significance. And then, without another word, he turned on his
+heel. He took no heed of Lafleur's dead body, that seemed to fondle the
+box, huddling it in a ghastly embrace, nor of me, who swayed and tottered
+and sank on the ground by the corpse. With set lips and eager eyes he
+passed me, taking the road by which we had come. And I, hugging my wounded
+arm, with open eyes and parted lips, saw him dive in among the trees and
+disappear toward the house. And I looked round on the iron box and the
+dead body--two caskets robbed of all that made them more than empty
+lumber.
+
+Minute followed minute; and then I heard the hoofs of a horse galloping at
+full speed along the road from the house toward Avranches. Lafleur was
+dead and done with; Pierre might go his ways; I lay fainting in the wood;
+the Cardinal's Necklace was still against my side. What recked the Duke of
+Saint-Maclou of all that? I knew, as I heard the thud of the hoofs on the
+road, that by the time the first reddening rays reached over the horizon
+he would be at the convent, seeking the woman who was all the world to
+him.
+
+And I sat there helpless, fearful of what would befall her. For what could
+a convent full of women avail against his mastering rage? And a sudden
+sharp pang ran through me, startling even myself in its intensity; so that
+I cried out aloud, raising my sound arm in the air toward Heaven, like a
+man who swears a vow:
+
+"By God, no! By God, no--no!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+I Choose my Way.
+
+
+The dead man lay there, embracing the empty box that had brought him to
+his death; and for many minutes I sat within a yard of him, detained by
+the fascination and grim mockery of the picture no less than by physical
+weakness and a numbness of my brain. My body refused to act, and my mind
+hardly urged its indolent servant. I was in sore distress for Marie
+Delhasse,--my vehement cry witnessed it,--yet I had not the will to move
+to her aid; will and power both seemed to fail me. I could fear, I could
+shrink with horror, but I could not act; nor did I move till the
+increasing pain of my wound drove me, as it might any unintelligent
+creature, to scramble to my feet and seek, half-blindly, for some place
+that should afford shelter and succor.
+
+Leaving Lafleur and the box where they lay, a pretty spectacle for a
+moralist, I stumbled through the wood back to the path, and stood there in
+helpless vacillation. At the house I should find better attendance, but
+old Jean's cottage was nearer. The indolence of weakness gained the day,
+and I directed my steps toward the cottage, thinking now, so far as I can
+recollect, of none of the exciting events of the night nor even of what
+the future still held, but purely and wholly of the fact that in the
+cottage I should find a fire and a bed. The root-instincts of the natural
+man--the primeval elementary wants--asserted their supremacy and claimed a
+monopoly of my mind, driving out all rival emotions, and with a mighty
+sigh of relief and content I pushed open the door of the cottage,
+staggered across to the fire and sank down on the stool by it, thanking
+Heaven for so much, and telling myself that soon, very soon, I should feel
+strong enough to make my way into the inner room and haul out Jean's
+pallet and set it by the fire and stretch my weary limbs, and, if the pain
+of my wound allowed me, go to sleep. Beyond that my desires did not reach,
+and I forgot all my fears save the one dread that I was too weak for the
+desired effort. Certainly it is hard for a man to think himself a hero!
+
+I took no note of time, but I must have sat where I was for many minutes,
+before I heard someone moving in the inner room. I was very glad; of
+course it was Jean, and Jean, I told myself with luxurious
+self-congratulation, would bring the bed for me, and put something on my
+wound, and maybe give me a chink of some fine hot cognac that would spread
+life through my veins. Thus I should be comfortable and able to sleep, and
+forget all the shadowy people--they seemed but shadows half-real--that I
+had been troubling my brain about: the duke, and Marie, whose face danced
+for a moment before my eyes, and that dead fellow who hugged the box so
+ludicrously. So I tried to call to Jean, but the trouble was too great,
+and, as he would be sure to come out soon, I waited; and I blinked at the
+smoldering wood-ashes in the fire till my eyes closed and the sleep was
+all but come, despite the smart of my arm and the ache in my unsupported
+back.
+
+But just before I had forgotten everything the door of the inner room
+creaked and opened. My side was toward it and I did not look round. I
+opened my eyes and feebly waved my left hand. Then a voice came, clear and
+fresh:
+
+"Jean, is it you? Well, is the duke at the house?"
+
+I must be dreaming; that was my immediate conviction, for the voice that I
+heard was a voice I knew well, but one not likely to be heard here, in
+Jean's cottage, at four o'clock in the morning. Decidedly I was dreaming,
+and as in order to dream a man must be asleep, I was pleased at the idea
+and nodded happily, smiling and blinking in self-congratulation. But that
+pleasant minute of illusion was my last; for the voice cried in tones too
+full of animation, too void of dreamy vagueness, too real and actual to
+let me longer set them down as made of my own brain:
+
+"Heaven! Why, it's Mr. Aycon! How in the world do you come here?"
+
+To feel surprise at the Duchess of Saint-Maclou doing anything which she
+might please to do or being anywhere that the laws of Nature rendered it
+possible she should be, was perhaps a disposition of mind of which I
+should have been by this time cured; yet I was surprised to find her
+standing in the doorway that led from Jean's little bedroom dressed in a
+neat walking gown and a very smart hat, her hands clasped in the surprise
+which she shared with me and her eyes gleaming with an amused delight
+which found, I fear, no answer in my heavy bewildered gaze.
+
+"I'm getting warm," said I at first, but then I made an effort to rouse
+myself. "I was a bit hurt, you know," I went on; "that little villain
+Pierre--"
+
+"Hurt!" cried the duchess, springing forward. "How? Oh, my dear Mr. Aycon,
+how pale you are!"
+
+After that remark of the duchess', I remember nothing which occurred for a
+long while. In fact, just as I had apprehended that I was awake, that the
+duchess was real, and that it was most remarkable to find her in Jean's
+cottage, I fainted, and the duchess, the cottage, and everything else
+vanished from sight and mind.
+
+When next I became part of the waking world I found myself on the sofa of
+the little room in the duke's house which I was beginning to know so well.
+I felt very comfortable: my arm was neatly bandaged, I wore a clean shirt.
+Suzanne was spreading a meal on the table, and the duchess, in a charming
+morning gown, was smiling at me and humming a tune. The clock on the
+mantelpiece marked a quarter to eight.
+
+"Now I know all about it," said the duchess, perceiving my revival. "I've
+heard it all from Suzanne and Jean--or anyhow I can guess the rest. And
+you mustn't tire yourself by talking. I had you brought here so that you
+might be well looked after; because we're so much indebted to you, you
+know."
+
+"Is the duke here?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, dear, no; it's all right," nodded the duchess. "I don't know--and I
+do not care--where the duke is. Drink this milk, Mr. Aycon. Your arm's not
+very bad, you know--Jean says it isn't, I mean--but you'd better have milk
+first, and something to eat when you feel stronger."
+
+The duchess appeared to be in excellent spirits. She caught up a bit of
+toast from the table, poured out a cup of coffee, and, still moving about,
+began a light breakfast, with every sign of appetite and enjoyment.
+
+"You've come back?" said I, looking at her in persistent surprise.
+
+Suzanne put the cushions behind my back in a more comfortable position,
+smiled kindly on us, and left us.
+
+"Yes," said the duchess, "I have for the present, Mr. Aycon."
+
+"But--but the duke--" I stammered.
+
+"I don't mind the duke," said she. "Besides, he may not come. It's rather
+nice that you're just a little hurt. Don't you think so, Mr. Aycon? Just a
+little, you know."
+
+"Why?" was all I found to say. The reason was not clear to me.
+
+"Why, in the first place, because you can't fight till your arm's
+well--oh, yes, of course Armand was going to fight you--and, in the second
+place, you can and must stay here. There's no harm in it, while you're
+ill, you see; Armand can't say there is. It's rather funny, isn't it, Mr.
+Aycon?" and she munched a morsel of toast, and leaned her elbows on the
+table and sent a sparkling glance across at me, for all the world as she
+had done on the first night I knew her. The cares of the world did not
+gall the shoulders of Mme. de Saint-Maclou.
+
+"But why are you here?" said I, sticking to my point.
+
+The duchess set down the cup of coffee which she had been sipping.
+
+"I am not particular," said she. "But I told the Mother Superior exactly
+what I told the duke. She wouldn't listen any more than he would. However,
+I was resolved; so I came here. I don't see where else I could go, do you,
+Mr. Aycon?"
+
+"What did you tell the Mother?"
+
+The duchess stretched one hand across the table, clenching her small fist
+and tapping gently with it on the cloth.
+
+"There is one thing that I will not do, Mr. Aycon," said she, a touch of
+red coming in her cheeks and her lips set in obstinate lines. "I don't
+care whether the house is my house or anybody else's house, or an
+inn--yes, or a convent either. But I will not be under the same roof with
+Marie Delhasse."
+
+And her declaration finished, the duchess nodded most emphatically, and
+turned to her cup again.
+
+The name of Marie Delhasse, shot forth from Mme. de Saint-Maclou's pouting
+lips, pierced the cloud that had seemed to envelop my brain. I sat up on
+the sofa and looked eagerly at the duchess.
+
+"You saw her, then, at the convent?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, I met her in the chapel. Really, I should have expected to be safe
+from her there. And the Mother would not turn her out!" And then the
+duchess, by a sudden transition, said to me, with a half-apologetic, half
+challenging smile: "You got my note, I suppose, Mr. Aycon?"
+
+For a minute I regarded the duchess. And I smiled, and my smile turned to
+a laugh as I answered:
+
+"Oh, yes! I got the note."
+
+"I meant it," said she. "But I suppose I must forgive you now. You've been
+so brave, and you're so much hurt." And the duchess' eyes expressed a
+gratifying admiration of my powers.
+
+I fingered my arm, which lay comfortably enough in the bandages and the
+sling that Suzanne's care had provided for it. And I rose to my feet.
+
+"Oh, you mustn't move!" cried the duchess, rising also and coming to where
+I stood.
+
+"By Jove, but I must!" said I, looking at the clock. "The duke's got four
+hours' start of me."
+
+"What do you want with my husband now?" she asked. "I don't see why you
+should fight him; anyhow, you can't fight him till your arm is well."
+
+The duchess' words struck on my ear and her dainty little figure was
+before my eyes, but my thoughts were absent from her.
+
+"Don't go, Mr. Aycon," said she.
+
+"I must go," I said. "By this time he'll be at the convent."
+
+A frown gathered on the duchess' face.
+
+"What concern is it of yours?" she asked. "I--I mean, what good can you
+do?"
+
+"I can hardly talk to you about it--" I began awkwardly; but the duchess
+saved me the trouble of finishing my sentence, for she broke in angrily:
+
+"Oh, as if I believe that! Mr. Aycon, why are you going?"
+
+"I'm going to see that the duke doesn't--"
+
+"Oh, you are very anxious--and very good, aren't you? Yes, and very
+chivalrous! Mr. Aycon, I don't care what he does;" and she looked at me
+defiantly.
+
+"But I do," said I, and seeing my hat on the cabinet by the wall, I walked
+across the room and stretched out my hand for it. The duchess darted after
+me and stood between my hat and me.
+
+"Why do you care?" she asked, with a stamp of her small foot.
+
+There were, no doubt, many most sound and plausible reasons for
+caring--reasons independent of any private feelings of my own in regard to
+Marie Delhasse; but not one of them did I give to the duchess. I stood
+before her, looking, I fear, very embarrassed, and avoiding her accusing
+eyes.
+
+Then the duchess flung her head back, and with passionate scorn said to
+me:
+
+"I believe you're in love with the woman yourself!"
+
+And to this accusation also I made no reply.
+
+"Are you really going?" she asked, her voice suddenly passing to a note of
+entreaty.
+
+"I must go," said I obstinately, callously, curtly.
+
+"Then go!" cried the duchess. "And never let me see you again!"
+
+She moved aside, and I sprang forward and seized my hat. I took no notice
+of the duchess, and, turning, I walked straight toward the door. But
+before I reached it the duchess flung herself on the sofa and buried her
+face in the cushions. I would not leave her like that, so I stood and
+waited; but my tongue still refused to find excuses, and still I was in a
+fever to be off.
+
+But the duchess rose again and stood upright. She was rather pale and her
+lips quivered, but she held out her hand to me with a smile. And suddenly
+I understood what I was doing, and that for the second time the proud
+little lady before me saw herself left and neglected for the sake of that
+woman whose presence made even a convent uninhabitable to her; and the
+bitter wound that her pride suffered was declared in her bearing and in
+the pathetic effort at dignity which she had summoned up to hide her pain.
+Yet, although on this account I was sorry for her, I discerned nothing
+beyond hurt pride, and was angry at the pride for the sake of Marie
+Delhasse, and when I spoke it was in defense of Marie Delhasse, and not in
+comfort to the duchess.
+
+"She is not what you think," I said.
+
+The duchess drew herself up to her full height, making the most of her
+inches.
+
+"Really, Mr. Aycon," said she, "you must forgive me if I do not discuss
+that." And she paused, and then added, with a curl of her lip: "You and my
+husband can settle that between you;" and with a motion of her hand she
+signed to me to leave her.
+
+Looking back on the matter, I do not know that I had any reason to be
+ashamed or to feel myself in any sort a traitor to the duchess. Yet some
+such feelings I had as I backed out of the room leaving her standing there
+in unwonted immobility, her eyes haughty and cold, her lips set, her grace
+congealed to stateliness, her gay agility frozen to proud stiffness.
+
+And I left her thus standing in obedience to the potent yet still but
+half-understood spell which drew me from her side and would not suffer me
+to rest, while the Duke of Saint-Maclou was working his devices in the
+valley beneath the town of Avranches.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+The Inn near Pontorson.
+
+
+The moment I found myself outside the house--and I must confess that, for
+reasons which I have indicated, it was a relief to me to find myself
+there--I hastened to old Jean's cottage. The old man was eating his
+breakfast; his stolidity was unshaken by the events of the night; he
+manifested nothing beyond a mild satisfaction that the two rascals had
+justified his opinion of them, and a resigned regret that Pierre had not
+shared the fate of Lafleur. He told me that his inquiries after Marie
+Delhasse had been fruitless, and added that he supposed there would be a
+police inquiry into the attempted robbery and the consequent death of
+Lafleur; indeed he was of opinion that the duke had gone to Avranches to
+arrange for it as much as to prosecute his search for Marie. I seized the
+opportunity to suggest that I should be a material witness, and urged him
+to give me one of the duke's horses to carry me to Avranches. He grumbled
+at my request, declaring that I should end by getting him into trouble;
+but a few francs overcame his scruples, and he provided me with a sturdy
+animal, which I promised to bring or send back in the course of the day.
+
+Great as my impatience was, I was compelled to spend the first hour of my
+arrival at Avranches under the doctor's hands. He discovered to my
+satisfaction that the bullet had not lodged in my arm and that my hurt was
+no more than a flesh-wound, which would, if all went well, heal in a few
+days. He enjoined perfect rest and freedom from worry and excitement. I
+thanked him, bowed myself out, mounted again, and rode to the hotel, where
+I left my horse with instructions for its return to its owner. Then, at my
+best speed, I hastened down the hill again, reached the grounds of the
+convent, and approached the door. Perfect rest and freedom from excitement
+were unattainable until I had learned whether Marie Delhasse was still
+safe within the old white walls which I saw before me; for, though I could
+not trace how the change in me had come, nor track its growth, I knew now
+that if she were there the walls held what was of the greatest moment to
+me in all the world, and that if she were not there the world was a hell
+to me until I found her.
+
+I was about to ring the bell, when from the gate of the burial-ground the
+Mother Superior came at a slow pace. The old woman was frowning as she
+walked, and her frown deepened at sight of me. But I, caring nothing for
+what she thought, ran up to her, crying before I had well reached her:
+
+"Is Marie Delhasse still here?"
+
+The Mother stopped dead, and regarded me with disapprobation.
+
+"What business is it of yours, sir, where the young woman is?" she asked.
+
+"I mean her no harm," I urged eagerly. "If she is safe here, I ask to know
+no more; I don't even ask to see her. Is she here? The Duchess of
+Saint-Maclou told me that you refused to send her away."
+
+"God forbid that I should send away any sinner who will find refuge here,"
+she said solemnly. "You have seen the duchess?"
+
+"Yes; she is at home. But Mlle. Delhasse?"
+
+But the old woman would not be hurried. She asked again:
+
+"What concern have you, sir, with Marie Delhasse?"
+
+I looked her in the face as I answered plainly:
+
+"To save her from the Duke of Saint-Maclou."
+
+"And from her own mother, sir?"
+
+"Yes, above all from her own mother."
+
+The old woman started at my words; but there was no change in the level
+calm of her voice as she asked:
+
+"And why would you rescue her?"
+
+"For the same reason that any gentleman would, if he could. If you want
+more--"
+
+She held up her hand to silence me; but her look was gentler and her voice
+softer, as she said:
+
+"You, sir, cannot save, and I cannot save, those who will not let God
+himself save them."
+
+"What do you mean?" I cried in a frenzy of fear and eagerness.
+
+"I had prayed for her, and talked with her. I thought I had seen grace in
+her. Well, I know not. It is true that she acted as her mother bade her.
+But I fear all is not well."
+
+"I pray you to speak plainly. Where is she?"
+
+"I do not know where she is. What I know, sir, you shall know, for I
+believe you come in honesty. This morning--some two hours ago--a carriage
+drove from the town here. Mme. Delhasse was in it, and with her the Duke
+of Saint-Maclou. I could not refuse to let the woman see her daughter.
+They spoke together for a time; and then they called me, and Marie--yes,
+Marie herself--begged me to let her see the duke. So they came here where
+we stand, and I stood a few yards off. They talked earnestly in low tones.
+And at last Marie came to me (the others remaining where they were), and
+took my hand and kissed it, thanking me and bidding me adieu. I was
+grieved, sir, for I trusted that the girl had found peace here; and she
+was in the way to make us love her. 'Does your mother bid you go?' I
+asked, 'And will she save you from all harm?' And she answered: 'I go of
+my own will, Mother; but I go hoping to return.' 'You swear that you go of
+your own will?' I asked. 'Yes, of my own will,' she said firmly; but she
+was near to weeping as she spoke. Yet what could I do? I could but tell
+her that our door--God's door--was never shut. That I told her; and with a
+heavy heart, being able to do nothing else, I let her go. I pray God no
+harm come of it. But I thought the man's face wore a look of triumph."
+
+"By Heaven," I cried, "it shall not wear it for long! Which way did they
+go?"
+
+She pointed to the road by the side of the bay, leading away from
+Avranches.
+
+"That way. I watched the carriage and its dust till I saw it no more,
+because of the wood that lies between here and the road. You pursue them,
+sir?"
+
+"To the world's end, madame, if I must."
+
+She sighed and opened her lips to speak, but no words came; and without
+more, I turned and left her, and set my face to follow the carriage. I
+was, I think, half-mad with anger and bewilderment, for I did not think
+that it would be time well spent to ascend to the town and obtain a
+vehicle or a horse; but I pressed on afoot, weary and in pain as I was,
+along the hot white road. For now indeed my heart was on fire, and I knew
+that beside Marie Delhasse everything was nothing. So at first
+imperceptibly, slowly, and unobserved, but at the last with a swift
+resistless rush, the power of her beauty and of the soul that I had seemed
+to see in her won upon me; and that moment, when I thought that she had
+yielded to her enemy and mine, was the flowering and bloom of my love for
+her.
+
+Where had they gone? Not to the duke's house, or I should have met them as
+I rode down earlier in the morning. Then where? France was wide, and the
+world wider: my steps were slow. Where lay the use of the chase? In the
+middle of the road, when I had gone perhaps a mile, I stopped dead. I was
+beaten and sick at heart, and I searched for a nook of shade by the
+wayside, and flung myself on the ground; and the ache of my arm was the
+least of my pain.
+
+As I lay there, my eye caught sight of a cloud of dust on the road. For a
+moment I scanned it eagerly, and then fell back with a curse of
+disappointment. It was caused by a man on a horse--and the man was not the
+duke. But in an instant I was sitting up again--for as the rider drew
+nearer, trotting briskly along, his form and air was familiar to me; and
+when he came opposite to me, I sprang up and ran out to meet him, crying
+out to him:
+
+"Gustave! Gustave!"
+
+It was Gustave de Berensac, my friend. He reined in his horse and greeted
+me--and he greeted me without surprise, but not without apparent
+displeasure.
+
+"I thought I should find you here still," said he. "I rode over to seek
+you. Surely you are not at the duchess'?"
+
+His tone was eloquent of remonstrance.
+
+"I've been staying at the inn."
+
+"At the inn?" he repeated, looking at me curiously. "And is the duchess at
+home?"
+
+"She's at home now. How come you here?"
+
+"Ah, my friend, and how comes your arm in a sling? Well, you shall have my
+story first. I expect it will prove shorter. I am staying at Pontorson
+with a friend who is quartered there."
+
+"But you went to Paris."
+
+Gustave leaned clown to me, and spoke in a low impressive tone:
+
+"Gilbert," said he, "I've had a blow. The day after I got to Paris I heard
+from Lady Cynthia. She's going to be married to a countryman of yours."
+
+Gustave looked very doleful. I murmured condolence, though in truth I
+cared, just then, not a straw about the matter.
+
+"So," he continued, "I seized the first opportunity for a little change."
+
+There was a pause. Gustave's mournful eye ranged over the landscape. Then
+he said, in a patient, sorrowful voice:
+
+"You said the duchess was at home?"
+
+"Yes, she's at home now."
+
+"Ah! I ask again, because as I passed the inn on the way between here and
+Pontorson I saw in the courtyard--"
+
+"Yes, yes, what?" cried I in sudden eagerness.
+
+"What's the matter, man? I saw a carriage with some luggage on it, and it
+looked like the duke's, and--Hallo! Gilbert, where are you going?"
+
+"I can't wait, I can't wait!" I called, already three or four yards away.
+
+"But I haven't heard how you got your arm--"
+
+"I can't tell you now. I can't wait!"
+
+My lethargy had vanished; I was hot to be on my way again.
+
+"Is the man mad?" he cried; and he put his horse to a quick walk to keep
+up with me.
+
+I stopped short.
+
+"It would take all day to tell you the story," I said impatiently.
+
+"Still I should like to know--"
+
+"I can't help it. Look here, Gustave, the duchess knows. Go and see her. I
+must go on now."
+
+Across the puzzled mournful eyes of the rejected lover and bewildered
+friend I thought I saw a little gleam.
+
+"The duchess?" said he.
+
+"Yes, she's all alone. The duke's not there."
+
+"Where is the duke?" he asked; but, as it struck me, now rather in
+precaution than in curiosity.
+
+"That's what I'm going to see," said I.
+
+And with hope and resolution born again in my heart I broke into a fair
+run, and, with a wave of my hand, left Gustave in the middle of the road,
+staring after me and plainly convinced that I was mad. Perhaps I was not
+far from that state. Mad or not, in any case after three minutes I thought
+no more of my good friend Gustave de Berensac, nor of aught else, save the
+inn outside Pontorson, just where the old road used to turn toward Mont
+St. Michel. To that goal I pressed on, forgetting my weariness and my
+pain. For it might be that the carriage would still stand in the yard, and
+that in the house I should come upon the object of my search.
+
+Half an hour's walk brought me to the inn, and there, to my joy, I saw the
+carriage drawn up under a shed side by side with the inn-keeper's market
+cart. The horses had been taken out; there was no servant in sight. I
+walked up to the door of the inn and passed through it. And I called for
+wine.
+
+A big stout man, wearing a blouse, came out to meet me. The inn was a
+large one, and the inn-keeper was evidently a man of some consideration,
+although he wore a blouse. But I did not like the look of him, for he had
+shifty eyes and a bloated face. Without a word he brought me what I
+ordered and set it down in a little room facing the stable yard.
+
+"Whose carriage is that under your shed?" I asked, sipping my wine.
+
+"It is the carriage of the Duke of Saint-Maclou, sir," he answered readily
+enough.
+
+"The duke is here, then?"
+
+"Have you business with him, sir?"
+
+"I did but ask you a simple question," said I. "Ah! what's that? Who's
+that?"
+
+I had been looking out of the window, and my sudden exclamation was caused
+by this--that the door of a stable which faced me had opened very gently,
+and but just wide enough to allow a face to appear for an instant and then
+disappear. And it seemed to me that I knew the face, although the sight of
+it had been too short to make me sure.
+
+"What did you see, sir?" asked the inn-keeper. (The name on his signboard
+was Jacques Bontet.)
+
+I turned and faced him full.
+
+"I saw someone look out of the stable," said I.
+
+"Doubtless the stable-boy," he answered; and his manner was so ordinary,
+unembarrassed, and free from alarm, that I doubted whether my eyes had not
+played me a trick, or my imagination played one upon my eyes.
+
+Be that as it might, I had no time to press my host further at that
+moment; for I heard a step behind me and a voice I knew saying:
+
+"Bontet, who is this gentleman?"
+
+I turned. In the doorway of the room stood the Duke of Saint-Maclou. He
+was in the same dress as when he had parted from me; he was dusty, his
+face was pale, and the skin had made bags under his eyes. But he stood
+looking at me composedly, with a smile on his lips.
+
+"Ah!" said he, "it is my friend Mr. Aycon. Bontet, bring me some wine,
+too, that I may drink with my friend." And he added, addressing me: "You
+will find our good Bontet most obliging. He is a tenant of mine, and he
+will do anything to oblige me and my friends. Isn't it so, Bontet?"
+
+The fellow grunted a surly and none too respectful assent, and left the
+room to fetch the duke his wine. Silence followed on his departure for
+some seconds. Then the duke came up to where I stood, folded his arms, and
+looked me full in the face.
+
+"It is difficult to lose the pleasure of your company, sir," he said.
+
+"If you will depart from here alone," I retorted, "you shall find it the
+easiest thing in the world. For, in truth, it is not desire for your
+society that brings me here."
+
+He lifted a hand and tugged at his mustache.
+
+"You have, perhaps, been to the convent?" he hazarded.
+
+"I have just come from there," I rejoined.
+
+"I am not an Englishman," said he, curling the end of the mustache, "and I
+do not know how plain an intimation need be to discourage one of your
+resolute race. For my part, I should have thought that when a lady accepts
+the escort of one gentleman, it means that she does not desire that of
+another."
+
+He said this with a great air and an assumption of dignity that contrasted
+strongly with the unrestrained paroxysms of the night before. I take it
+that success--or what seems such--may transform a man as though it changed
+his very skin. But I was not skilled to cross swords with him in talk of
+that kind, so I put my hands in my pockets and leaned against the shutter
+and said bluntly:
+
+"God knows what lies you told her, you see."
+
+His white face suddenly flushed; but he held himself in and retorted with
+a sneer:
+
+"A disabled right arm gives a man fine courage."
+
+"Nonsense!" said I. "I can aim as well with my left;" and that indeed was
+not very far from the truth. And I went on: "Is she here?"
+
+"Mme. and Mlle. Delhasse are both here, under my escort."
+
+"I should like to see Mlle. Delhasse," I observed.
+
+He answered me in low tones, but with the passion in him closer to the
+surface now and near on boiling up through the thin film of his
+self-restraint:
+
+"So long as I live, you shall never see her."
+
+But I cared not, for my heart leaped in joy at his words. They meant to me
+that he dared not let me see her; that, be the meaning of her consent to
+go with him what it might, yet he dared not match his power over her
+against mine. And whence came the power he feared? It could be mine only
+if I had touched her heart.
+
+"I presume she may see whom she will," said I still carelessly.
+
+"Her mother will protect her from you with my help."
+
+There was silence for a minute. Then I said:
+
+"I will not leave here without seeing her."
+
+And a pause followed my words till the duke, fixing his eyes on mine,
+answered significantly:
+
+"If you leave here alive to-night, you are welcome to take her with you."
+
+I understood, and I nodded my head.
+
+"My left arm is as sound as yours," he added; "and, maybe, better
+practiced."
+
+Our eyes met again, and the agreement was sealed. The duke was about to
+speak again, when a sudden thought struck me. I put my hand in my pocket
+and drew out the Cardinal's Necklace. And I flung it on the table before
+me, saying:
+
+"Let me return that to you, sir."
+
+The duke stood regarding the necklace for a moment, as it lay gleaming and
+glittering on the wooden table in the bare inn parlor. Then he stepped up
+to the table, but at the moment I cried:
+
+"You won't steal her away before--before--"
+
+"Before we fight? I will not, on my honor." He paused and added: "For
+there is one thing I want more even than her."
+
+I could guess what that was.
+
+And then he put out his hand, took up the necklace, and thrust it
+carelessly into the pocket of his coat. And looking across the room, I saw
+the inn-keeper, Jacques Bontet, standing in the doorway and staring with
+all his eyes at the spot on the table where the glittering thing had for a
+moment lain; and as the fellow set down the wine he had brought for the
+duke, I swear that he trembled as a man who has seen a ghost; for he
+spilled some of the wine and chinked the bottle against the glass. But
+while I stared at him, the duke lifted his glass and bowed to me, saying,
+with a smile and as though he jested in some phrase of extravagant
+friendship for me:
+
+"May nothing less than death part you and me?"
+
+And I drank the toast with him, saying "Amen."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A Reluctant Intrusion.
+
+
+As Bontet the inn-keeper set the wine on the table before the Duke of
+Saint-Maclou, the big clock in the hall of the inn struck noon. It is
+strange to me, even now when the story has grown old in my memory, to
+recall all that happened before the hands of that clock pointed again to
+twelve. And last year when I revisited the neighborhood and found a neat
+new house standing on the site of the ramshackle inn, I could not pass by
+without a queer feeling in my throat; for it was there that the results of
+the duchess' indiscretion finally worked themselves out to their
+unexpected, fatal, and momentous ending. Seldom, as I should suppose, has
+such a mixed skein of good and evil, of fatality and happiness, been spun
+from material no more substantial than a sportive lady's idle freak.
+
+"By the way, Mr. Aycon," said the duke, after we had drunk our toast, "I
+have had a message from the magistrate at Avranches requesting our
+presence to-morrow morning at eleven o'clock. An inquiry has to be held
+into the death of that rascal Lafleur, and our evidence must be taken. It
+is a mere formality, the magistrate is good enough to assure me, and I
+have assured him that we shall neither of us allow anything to interfere
+with our waiting on him, if we can possibly do so."
+
+"I could have sent no other message myself," said I.
+
+"I will also," continued the duke, "send word by Bontet here to those two
+friends of mine at Pontorson. It would be dull for you to dine alone with
+me, and, as the evening promises to be fine, I will ask them to be here by
+five o'clock, and we will have a stroll on the sands and a nearer look at
+the Mount before our meal. They are officers who are quartered there."
+
+"Their presence," said I, "will add greatly to the pleasure of the
+evening."
+
+"Meanwhile, if you will excuse me, I shall take an hour or two's rest. We
+missed our sleep last night, and we should wish to be fresh when our
+guests arrive. If I might advise you--"
+
+"I am about to breakfast, after that I may follow your advice."
+
+"Ah, you've not breakfasted? You can't do better, then. _Au revoir_;" and
+with a bow he left me, calling to Bontet to follow him upstairs and wait
+for the note which was to go to the officers at Pontorson. It must be
+admitted that the duke conducted the necessary arrangements with much
+tact.
+
+In a quarter of an hour my breakfast was before me, and I seated myself
+with my back to the door and my face to the window. I had plenty to think
+about as I ate; but my chief anxiety was by some means to obtain an
+interview with Marie Delhasse, not with a view to persuading her to
+attempt escape with me before the evening--for I had made up my mind that
+the issue with the duke must be faced now, once for all--but in the hope
+of discovering why she had allowed herself to be persuaded into leaving
+the convent. Until I knew that, I was a prey to wretched doubts and
+despondency, which even my deep-seated confidence in her could not
+overcome. Fortunately I had a small sum of money in my pocket, and I felt
+sure that Bontet's devotion to the duke would not be proof against an
+adequate bribe: perhaps he would be able to assist me in eluding the
+vigilance of Madame Delhasse and obtaining speech with her daughter.
+
+Bontet, detained as I supposed by the duke, had left a kitchen-girl to
+attend on me; but I soon saw him come out into the yard, carrying a letter
+in his hand. He walked slowly across to the stable door, at which the
+face, suddenly presented and withdrawn, had caught my attention. He
+stopped before the door a moment, then the door opened. I could not see
+whether he opened it or whether it was unlocked from within, for his burly
+frame obstructed my view; but the pause was long enough to show that more
+than the lifting of a latch was necessary. And that I thought worth
+notice. The door closed after Bontet. I rose, opened my window and
+listened; but the yard was broad and no sound reached me from the stable.
+
+I waited there five minutes perhaps. The inn-keeper did not reappear, so I
+returned to my place. I had finished my meal before he came out. This time
+I was tolerably sure that the door was closed behind him by another hand,
+and I fancied that I heard the click of a lock. Also I noticed that the
+letter was no longer visible--of course, he might have put it in his
+pocket. Jumping up suddenly as though I had just chanced to notice him, I
+asked him if he were off to Pontorson, or, if not, had he a moment for
+conversation.
+
+"I am going in a few minutes, sir," he answered; "but I am at your service
+now."
+
+The words were civil enough, but his manner was surly and suspicious.
+Lighting a cigarette, I sat down on the window-sill, while he stood just
+outside.
+
+"I want a bedroom," said I. "Have you one for me?"
+
+"I have given you the room on the first floor, immediately opposite that
+of the duke."
+
+"Good. And where are the ladies lodged?"
+
+He made no difficulty about giving me an answer.
+
+"They have a sitting room on the first floor," he answered, "but hitherto
+they have not used it. They have two bedrooms, connected by an interior
+door, on the second floor, and they have not left them since their
+arrival."
+
+"Has the duke visited them there?"
+
+"I don't think he has seen them. They had a conversation on their
+arrival;" and the fellow grinned.
+
+Now was my time. I took a hundred-franc note out of my pocket and held it
+in my hand so that he could see the figures on it. I hoped that he would
+not be exorbitant, for I had but one more and some loose napoleons in my
+pocket.
+
+"What was the conversation about?" I asked.
+
+He put out his hand for the note; but I kept my grasp on it. Honesty was
+not written large--no, nor plain to read--on Bontet's fat face.
+
+"I heard little of it; but the young lady said, as they hurried upstairs:
+'Where is he? Where is he?'"
+
+"Yes, yes!"
+
+And I held out the note to him. He had earned it. And greedily he clutched
+it, and stowed it in his breeches pocket under his blouse.
+
+"I heard no more; they hurried her up; the old lady had her by one arm and
+the duke by the other. She looked distressed--why, I know not; for I
+suppose"--here a sly grin spread over the fellow's face--"that the pretty
+present I saw is for her."
+
+"It's the property of the duke," I said.
+
+"But gentlemen sometimes make presents to ladies," he suggested.
+
+"It may be his purpose to do so. Bontet, I want to see the young lady."
+
+He laughed insolently, kicking his toe against the wall.
+
+"What use, unless you have a better present, sir? But it's nothing to me.
+If you can manage it, you're welcome."
+
+"But how am I to manage it? Come, earn your money, and perhaps you'll earn
+more."
+
+"You're liberal, sir;" and he stared at me as though he were trying to
+look into my pocket and see how much money was there. I was glad that his
+glance was not so penetrating. "But I can't help you. Stay, though. The
+old lady has ordered coffee for two in the sitting-room, and bids me rouse
+the duke when it is ready: so perhaps the young lady will be left alone
+for a time. If you could steal up--"
+
+I was not in the mood to stand on a punctilio. My brain was kindled by
+Marie's words, "Where is he?" Already I was searching for their meaning
+and finding what I wished. If I could see her, and learn the longed-for
+truth from her, I should go in good heart to my conflict with the duke.
+
+"Go to your room," said Bontet, whom my prospective _largesse_ had
+persuaded to civility and almost to eagerness, "and wait. If madame and
+the duke go there, I'll let you know. But you must risk meeting them."
+
+"I don't mind about that," said I; and, in truth, nothing could make my
+relations with the pair more hostile than they were already.
+
+My business with Bontet was finished; but I indulged my curiosity for a
+moment.
+
+"You have a good stable over there, I see," I remarked. "How many horses
+have you there?"
+
+The fellow turned very red: all signs of good humor vanished from his
+face; my bribe evidently gave me no right to question him on that subject.
+
+"There are no horses there," he grunted. "The horses are in the new stable
+facing the road. This one is disused."
+
+"Oh, I saw you come out from there, and I thought--"
+
+"I keep some stores there," he said sullenly.
+
+"And that's why it's kept locked?" I asked at a venture.
+
+"Precisely, sir," he replied. But his uneasy air confirmed my suspicions
+as to the stable. It hid some secret, I was sure. Nay, I began to be sure
+that my eyes had not played me false, and that I had indeed seen the face
+I seemed to see. If that were so, friend Bontet was playing a double game
+and probably enjoying more than one paymaster.
+
+However, I had no leisure to follow that track, nor was I much concerned
+to attempt the task. The next day would be time--if I were alive the next
+day: and I cared little if the secret were never revealed. It was nothing
+to me--for it never crossed my mind that fresh designs might be hatched in
+the stable. Dismissing the matter, I did as Bontet advised, and walked
+upstairs to my room; and as luck would have it, I met Mme. Delhasse plump
+on the landing, she being on her way to the sitting room. I bowed low.
+Madame gave me a look of hatred and passed by me. As she displayed no
+surprise, it was evident that the duke had carried or sent word of my
+arrival. I was not minded to let her go without a word or two.
+
+"Madame--" I began; but she was too quick for me. She burst out in a
+torrent of angry abuse. Her resentment, dammed so long for want of
+opportunity, carried her away. To speak soberly and by the card, the woman
+was a hideous thing to see and hear; for in her wrath at me, she spared
+not to set forth in unshamed plainness her designs, nor to declare of what
+rewards, promised by the duke, my interference had gone near to rob her
+and still rendered uncertain. Her voice rose, for all her efforts to keep
+it low, and she mingled foul words of the duchess and of me with scornful
+curses on the virtue of her daughter. I could say nothing; I stood there
+wondering that such creatures lived, amazed that Marie Delhasse must call
+such an one her mother.
+
+Then in the midst of her tirade, the duke, roused without Bontet's help,
+came out of his room, and waited a moment listening to the flow of the
+torrent. And, strange as it seemed, he smiled at me and shrugged his
+shoulders, and I found myself smiling also; for disgusting as the woman
+was, she was amusing, too. And the duke went and caught her by the
+shoulder and said:
+
+"Come, don't be silly, mother. We can settle our accounts with Mr. Aycon
+in another way than this."
+
+His touch and words seemed to sober her--or perhaps her passion had run
+its course. She turned to him, and her lips parted with a smile, a cunning
+and--if my opinion be asked--loathsome smile; and she caressed the lapel
+of his coat with her hand. And the duke, who was smoking, smoked on, so
+that the smoke blew in her face, and she coughed and choked: whereat the
+duke also smiled. He set the right value on his instrument, and took
+pleasure in showing how he despised her.
+
+"My dear, dear duke, I have such news for you--such news?" she said,
+ignoring, as perforce she must, his rudeness. "Come in here, and leave
+that man."
+
+At this the duke suddenly bent forward, his scornful, insolent toleration
+giving place to interest.
+
+"News?" he cried, and he drew her toward the door to which she had been
+going, neither of them paying any more attention to me. And the door
+closed upon them.
+
+The duke had not needed Bontet's rousing. I did not need Bontet to tell me
+that the coast was clear. With a last alert glance at the door, I trod
+softly across the landing and reached the stairs by which Mlle. Delhasse
+had descended. Gently I mounted, and on reaching the top of the flight
+found a door directly facing me. I turned the handle, but the door was
+locked. I rattled the handle cautiously--and then again, and again. And
+presently I heard a light, timid, hesitating step inside; and through the
+door came, in the voice of Marie Delhasse:
+
+"Who's there?"
+
+And I answered at once, boldly, but in a low voice:
+
+"It is I. Open the door."
+
+She, in her turn, knew my voice; for the door was opened, and Marie
+Delhasse stood before me, her face pale with weariness and sorrow, and her
+eyes wide with wonder. She drew back before me, and I stepped in and shut
+the door, finding myself in a rather large, sparely furnished room. A door
+opposite was half-open. On the bed lay a bonnet and a jacket which
+certainly did not belong to Marie.
+
+Most undoubtedly I had intruded into the bedchamber of that highly
+respectable lady, Mme. Delhasse. I can only plead that the circumstances
+were peculiar.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A Strange Good Humor.
+
+
+For a moment Marie Delhasse stood looking at me; then she uttered a low
+cry, full of relief, of security, of joy; and coming to me stretched out
+her hands, saying:
+
+"You are here then, after all!"
+
+Charmed to see how she greeted me, I had not the heart to tell her that
+her peril was not past; nor did she give me the opportunity, for went on
+directly:
+
+"And you are wounded? But not badly, not badly, Mr. Aycon?"
+
+"Who told you I was wounded?"
+
+"Why, the duke. He said that you had been shot by a thief, and were very
+badly hurt; and--and--" She stopped, blushing.
+
+("Where is he?" I remembered the words; my forecast of their meaning had
+been true.)
+
+"And did what he told you," I asked softly, "make you leave the convent
+and come to find me?"
+
+"Yes," she answered, taking courage and meeting my eyes. "And then you
+were not here, and I thought it was a trap."
+
+"You were right; it was a trap. I came to find you at the convent, but you
+were gone: only by the chance of meeting with a friend who saw the duke's
+carriage standing here have I found you."
+
+"You were seeking for me?"
+
+"Yes, I was seeking for you."
+
+I spoke slowly, as though hours were open for our talk; but suddenly I
+remembered that at any moment the old witch might return. And I had much
+to say before she came.
+
+"Marie--" I began eagerly, never thinking that the name she had come to
+bear in my thoughts could be new and strange from my lips. But the moment
+I had uttered it I perceived what I had done, for she drew back further,
+gazing at me with inquiring eyes, and her breath seemed arrested. Then,
+answering the question in her eyes, I said simply:
+
+"For what else am I here, Marie?" and I caught her hand in my left hand.
+
+She stood motionless, still silently asking what I would. And I kissed her
+hand. And again the low cry, lower still--half a cry and half a sigh--came
+from her, and she drew timidly nearer to me; and I drew her yet nearer,
+whispering, in a broken word or two, that I loved her.
+
+But she, still dazed, looked up at me, whispering, "When, when?"
+
+And I could not tell her when I had come to love her, for I did not know
+then--nor can I recollect now; nor have I any opinion about it, save that
+it speaks ill for me that it was not when first I set my eyes upon her.
+But she doubted, remembering that I had seemed fancy-struck with the
+little duchess, and cold, maybe stern, to her; and because, I think, she
+knew that I had seen her tempted. And to silence her doubts, I kissed her
+lips. She did not return my kiss, but stood with wondering eyes. Then in
+an instant a change came over her face. I felt her press my hand, and for
+an instant or two her lips moved, but I heard no words, nor do I think
+that the unheard words were for my ear; and I bowed my head.
+
+Yet time pressed. Again I collected my thoughts from this sweet
+reverie--wherein what gave me not least joy was the perfect trust she
+showed in me, for that is perhaps the one thing in this world that a man
+may be proud to win--and said to her:
+
+"Marie, you must listen. I have something to tell you."
+
+"Oh, you'll take me away from them?" she cried, clutching my hand in both
+of hers.
+
+"I can't now," I answered. "You must be brave. Listen: if I try to take
+you away now, it may be that I should be killed and you left defenseless.
+But this evening you can be safe, whatever befalls me."
+
+"Why, what should befall you?" she asked, with a swift movement that
+brought her closer to me.
+
+I had to tell her the truth, or my plan for her salvation would not be
+carried out.
+
+"To-night I fight the duke. Hush! hush! Yes, I must fight with the
+duke--yes, wounded arm, my darling, notwithstanding. We shall leave here
+about five and go down to the bay toward the Mount, and there on the sands
+we shall fight. And--listen now--you must follow us, about half an hour
+after we have gone."
+
+"But they will not let me go."
+
+"Go you must. Marie, here is a pistol. Take it; and if anyone stops you,
+use it. But I think none will; for the duke will be with me, and I do not
+think Bontet will interfere."
+
+"But my mother?"
+
+"You are as strong as she."
+
+"Yes, yes, I'll come. You'll be on the sands; I'll come!" The help she had
+found in me made her brave now.
+
+"You will get there as we are fighting or soon after. Do not look for me
+or for the duke, but look for two gentlemen whom you do not know, they
+will be there--French officers--and to their honor you must trust."
+
+"But why not to you?"
+
+"If I am alive and well, I shall not fail you; but if I come not, go to
+them and demand their protection from the duke, telling them how he has
+snared you here. And they will not suffer him to carry you off against
+your will. Do you see? Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, I see. But must you fight?"
+
+"Yes, dear, I must fight. The duke will not trouble you again, I think,
+before the evening; and if you remember what I have told you, all will be
+well."
+
+So I tried to comfort her, believing as I did that no two French gentlemen
+would desire or dare to refuse her their protection against the duke. But
+she was clinging to me now, in great distress that I must fight--and
+indeed I had rather have fought at another time myself--and in fresh
+terror of her mother's anger, seeing that I should not be there to bear it
+for her.
+
+"For," she said, "we have had a terrible quarrel just before you came. I
+told her that unless I saw you within an hour nothing but force should
+keep me here, and that if they kept me here by force, I would find means
+to kill myself; and that I would not see nor speak to the duke unless he
+brought me to you, according to his promise; and that if he sent his
+necklace again--for he sent it here half an hour ago--I would not send it
+back as I did then, but would fling it out of the window yonder into the
+cattle pond, where he could go and fetch it out himself."
+
+And my dearest Marie, finding increased courage from reciting her
+courageous speech, and from my friendly hearing of it, raised her voice,
+and her eyes flashed, so that she looked yet more beautiful; and again did
+I forget inexorable time. But it struck me that there was small wonder
+that Mme. Delhasse's temper had not been of the best nor calculated to
+endure patiently such a vexatious encounter as befell her when she ran
+against me on the landing outside her door.
+
+Yet Marie's courage failed again; and I told her that before we fought I
+would tell my second of her state, so that if she came not and I were
+wounded (of worse I did not speak), he would come to the inn and bring her
+to me. And this comforted her more, so that she grew calmer, and, passing
+from our present difficulties, she gave herself to persuading me (nor
+would the poor girl believe that I needed no persuading) that in no case
+would she have yielded to the duke, and that her mother had left her in
+wrath born of an utter despair that Marie's will in the matter could ever
+be broken down.
+
+"For I told her," Marie repeated, "that I would sooner die!"
+
+She paused, and raising her eyes to mine, said to me (and here I think
+courage was not lacking in her):
+
+"Yes, although once I had hesitated, now I had rather die. For when I
+hesitated, God sent you to my door, that in love I might find salvation."
+
+Well, I do not know that a man does well to describe all that passes at
+times like this. There are things rather meet to be left dwelling in his
+own heart, sweetening all his life, and causing him to marvel that sinners
+have such joys conceded to them this side of Heaven; so that in their
+recollection he may find, mingling with his delight, an occasion for
+humility such as it little harms any of us to light on now and then.
+
+Enough then--for the telling of it; but enough in the passing of it there
+was not nor could be. Yet at last, because needs must when the devil--or a
+son--aye, or an elderly daughter of his--drives, I found myself outside
+the door of Mme. Delhasse's room. With the turning of the lock Marie
+whispered a last word to me, and full of hope I turned to descend the
+stairs. For I had upon me the feeling which, oftener perhaps than we
+think, gave to the righteous cause a victory against odds when ordeal of
+battle held sway. Now, such a feeling is, I take it, of small use in a
+court of law.
+
+But Fortune lost no time in checking my presumption by an accident which
+at first gave me great concern. For, even as I turned away from the door
+of the room, there was Mme. Delhasse coming up the stairs. I was fairly
+caught, there was no doubt about it; and for Marie's sake I was deeply
+grieved, for I feared that my discovery would mean another stormy scene
+for her. Nevertheless, to make the best of it, I assumed a jaunty air as I
+said to Mlle. Delhasse:
+
+"The duke will be witness that you were not in your room, madame. You will
+not be compromised."
+
+I fully expected that an outburst of anger would follow on this pleasantry
+of mine--which was, I confess, rather in the taste best suited to Mme.
+Delhasse than in the best as judged by an abstract standard--but to my
+surprise the old creature did nothing worse than bestow on me a sour grin.
+Apparently, if I were well-pleased with the last half-hour, she had found
+time pass no less pleasantly. All traces of her exasperation and ill humor
+had gone, and she looked as pleased and contented as though she had been
+an exemplary mother, rewarded (as such deserve to be) by complete love and
+peace in her family circle.
+
+"You've been slinking in behind my back, have you?" she asked, but still
+with a grin.
+
+"It would have been rude to force an entrance to your face," I observed.
+
+"And I suppose you've been making love to the girl?"
+
+"At the proper time, madame," said I, with much courtesy, "I shall no
+doubt ask you for an interview with regard to that matter. I shall omit no
+respect that you deserve."
+
+As I spoke, I stood on one side to let her pass. I cannot make up my mind
+whether her recent fury or her present good humor repelled me more.
+
+"You'd have a fine fool for a wife," said she, with a jerk of her thumb
+toward the room where the daughter was.
+
+"I should be compensated by a very clever mother-in-law," said I.
+
+The old woman paused for an instant at the top of the stairs, and looked
+me up and down.
+
+"Aye," said she, "you men think yourselves mighty clever, but a woman gets
+the better of you all now and then."
+
+I was utterly puzzled by her evident exultation. The duke could not have
+consented to accept her society in place of her daughter's; but I risked
+the impropriety and hazarded the suggestion to Mme. Delhasse. Her face
+curled in cunning wrinkles. She seemed to be about to speak, but then she
+shut her lips with a snap, and suspicion betrayed itself again in her
+eyes. She had a secret--a fresh secret--I could have sworn, and in her
+triumph she had come near to saying something that might have cast light
+on it.
+
+"By the way," I said, "your daughter did not expect my coming." It was
+perhaps a vain hope, but I thought that I might save Marie from a tirade.
+
+The old woman shrugged her shoulders, and observed carelessly:
+
+"The fool may do what she likes;" and with this she knocked at the door.
+
+I did not wait to see it opened--to confess the truth, I felt not sure of
+my temper were I forced to see her and Marie together--but went downstairs
+and into my own room. There I sat down in a chair by the window close to a
+small table, for I meant to write a letter or two to friends at home, in
+case the duke's left hand should prove more skillful than mine when we met
+that evening. But, finding that I could hardly write with my right hand
+and couldn't write at all with the other, I contented myself with
+scrawling laboriously a short note to Gustave de Berensac, which I put in
+my pocket, having indorsed on it a direction for its delivery in case I
+should meet with an accident. Then I lay back in my chair, regretting, I
+recollect, that, as my luggage was left at Avranches, I had not a clean
+shirt to fight in; and then, becoming drowsy, I began to stare idly along
+the road in front of the window, rehearsing the events of the last few
+days in my mind, but coming back to Marie Delhasse.
+
+So an hour passed away. Then I rose and stretched myself, and gave a
+glance out of the window to see if we were likely to have a fine evening
+for our sport, for clouds had been gathering up all day. And when I had
+made up my mind that the rain would hold off long enough for our purpose,
+I looked down at the road again, and there I saw two figures which I knew.
+From the direction of Pontorson came Jacques Bontet the inn-keeper,
+slouching along and smoking a thin black cigar.
+
+"Ah! he has been to deliver the note to our friends the officers," said I
+to myself.
+
+And then I looked at the other familiar figure, which was that of Mme.
+Delhasse. She wore the bonnet and cloak which had been lying on the bed in
+her room at the time of my intrusion. She was just leaving the premises of
+the inn strolling, nay dawdling, along. She met Bontet and stopped for a
+moment in conversation with him. Then she pursued her leisurely walk in
+the direction of Pontorson, and I watched her till she was about three
+hundred yards off. But her form had no charms, and, growing tired of the
+prospect, I turned away remarking to myself:
+
+"I suppose the old lady wants just a little stroll before dinner."
+
+Nor did I see any reason to be dissatisfied with either of my
+inferences--at the moment. So I disturbed myself no more, but rang the
+bell and ordered some coffee and a little glass of the least bad brandy in
+the inn. For it could not be long before I was presented with the Duke of
+Saint-Maclou's compliments and an intimation that he would be glad to have
+my company on a walk in the cool of the evening.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Unsummoned Witnesses.
+
+
+Slowly the afternoon wore away. My content had given place to urgent
+impatience, and I longed every moment for the summons to action. None
+came; and a quarter to five I went downstairs, hoping to find some means
+of whiling away the interval of time. Pushing open the door of the little
+_salle-à-manger_, I was presented with a back view of my host M. Bontet,
+who was leaning out of the window. Just as I entered, he shouted "Ready at
+six!" Then he turned swiftly round, having, I suppose, heard my entrance;
+at the same moment, the sound of a door violently slammed struck on my ear
+across the yard. I moved quickly up to the window. The stable door was
+shut; and Bontet faced me with a surly frown on his brow.
+
+"What is to be ready at six?" I asked.
+
+"Some refreshments for Mme. Delhasse," he answered readily.
+
+"You order refreshments from the stable?"
+
+"I was shouting to the scullery: the door is, as you will perceive, sir,
+there to the left."
+
+Now I knew that this was a lie, and I might very likely have said as much,
+had not the Duke of Saint-Maclou at this moment come into the room. He
+bowed to me, but addressed himself to Bontet.
+
+"Well, are the gentlemen to be here at five?" he asked.
+
+Bontet, with an air of relief, began an explanation. One of the
+gentlemen--M. de Vieuville, he believed--had read out the note in his
+presence, and had desired him to tell the duke that he and the other
+gentleman would meet the duke and his friend on the sands at a quarter to
+six. They would be where the road ceased and the sand began at that hour.
+
+"He seems to think," Bontet explained, "that less attention would thus be
+directed to the affair."
+
+The precaution seemed wise enough; but why had M. de Vieuville taken
+Bontet so much into his confidence? The same thought struck the duke, for
+he asked sharply:
+
+"Why did he read the note to you?"
+
+"Oh, he thought nothing of that," said Bontet easily. "The gentlemen at
+Pontorson know me very well: several affairs have been arranged from this
+house."
+
+"You ought to keep a private cemetery," said the duke with a grim smile.
+
+"The sands are there," laughed the fellow, with a wave of his hand.
+
+Nobody appeared to desire to continue this cheerful conversation, and
+silence fell upon us for some moments. Then the duke observed:
+
+"Bontet, I want you for a few minutes. Mr. Aycon, shall you be ready to
+start in half an hour? Our friends will probably bring pistols: failing
+that, I can provide you, if you have no objection to using mine."
+
+I bowed, and they left me alone. And then, having nothing better to do, I
+lit a cigar, vaulted out of the window, and strolled toward the stable. My
+curiosity about the stable had been growing rapidly. I cast a glance
+round, and saw nobody in the yard. Then, with a careless air, I turned the
+handle of the door. Nothing occurred. I turned it more violently; still
+nothing happened. I bent down suddenly and looked through the keyhole. And
+I saw--not a key, but--an eye! And for ten seconds I looked at the eye.
+Then the eye disappeared; and I heard that little unmistakable "click."
+The eye had a pistol--and had cocked it! Was that because it saw through
+the keyhole strange garments, instead of the friendly bright blue of
+Bontet's blouse? And why had the eye such a dislike to strangers? I
+straightened myself again and took a walk along the length of the stable,
+considering these questions and, incidentally, looking for a window; but
+the only window was a clear four feet above my head.
+
+I am puzzled even now to say whether I regret not having listened to the
+suspicion that was strong in my breast. Had I forecast, in the least
+degree, the result of my neglecting to pay heed to its warning, I should
+not have hesitated for a moment. But in the absence of such a presage, I
+felt rather indifferent about the matter. My predominant desire was to
+avoid the necessity of postponing the settlement of the issue between the
+duke and myself; and a delay to that must needs follow, if I took action
+in regard to the stable. Moreover, why should I stir in the matter? I had
+a right to waive any grievance of my own; for the rest, it seemed to me
+that justice was not much concerned in the matter; the merits or demerits
+of the parties were, in my view, pretty equal; and I questioned the
+obligation to incur, not only the delay which I detested, but, in all
+probability, a very risky adventure in a cause which I had very little at
+heart.
+
+If "the eye" could, by being "ready at six," get out of the stable while
+the duke and I were engaged otherwise and elsewhere, why--"Let him," said
+I, "and go to the devil his own way. He's sure to get there at last!" So I
+reasoned--or perhaps, I should rather say, so I felt; and I must repeat
+that I find it difficult now to be very sorry that my mood was what it
+was.
+
+My half hour was passing. I crossed back to the window and got in again.
+The duke, whose impatience rivaled my own, was waiting for me. A case of
+pistols lay on the table and, having held them up for me to see, he
+slipped them inside his coat.
+
+"Are you ready, sir?" he asked. "We may as well be starting."
+
+I bowed and motioned him to precede me. He also, in spite of his
+impatience, seemed to me to be in a better humor than earlier in the day.
+The interview with Mme. Delhasse must have been satisfactory to both
+parties. Had not his face showed me the improvement in his temper, his
+first words after we left the premises of the inn (at a quarter past five
+exactly) would have declared it; for he turned to me and said:
+
+"Look here, Mr. Aycon. You're running a great risk for nothing. Be a
+sensible man. Go back to Avranches, thence to Cherbourg, and thence to
+where you live--and leave me to settle my own affairs."
+
+"Before I accept that proposal," said I, "I must know what 'your own
+affairs' include."
+
+"You're making a fool of yourself--or being made a fool of--which you
+please," he assured me; and his face wore for the moment an almost
+friendly look. I saw clearly that he believed he had won the day. The old
+lady had managed to make him think that--by what artifice I knew not. But
+what I did know was that I believed not a jot of the insinuation he was
+conveying to me, and had not a doubt of the truth, and sincerity of Marie
+Delhasse.
+
+"The best of us do that sometimes," I answered. "And when one has begun,
+it is best to go through."
+
+"As you please. Have you ever practiced with your left hand?"
+
+"No," said I.
+
+"Then," said he, "you've not long to live."
+
+To do him justice, he said it in no boasting way, but like a man who would
+warn me, and earnestly.
+
+"I have never practiced with my right either," I remarked. "I think I get
+rather a pull by the arrangement."
+
+He walked on in silence for a few yards. Then he asked:
+
+"You're resolved on it?"
+
+"Absolutely," I returned. For I understood that he did but offer the same
+terms as before--terms which included the abandonment of Marie Delhasse.
+
+On we went, our faces set toward the great Mount, and with the sinking sun
+on our left hands. We met few people, and as we reached the sands yet
+fewer. When we came to a stand, just where the causeway now begins (it was
+not built then), nobody was in sight. The duke took out his watch.
+
+"We are punctual to the minute," said he. "I hope those fellows won't be
+very late, or the best of the light will be gone."
+
+There were some large flat blocks of stone lying by the roadside, and we
+sat down on them and waited. We were both smoking, and we found little to
+say to one another. For my part, I thought less of our coming encounter
+than of the success of the scheme which I had laid for Marie's safety. And
+I believe that the duke, on his part, gave equally small heed to the
+fight; for the smile of triumph or satisfaction flitted now and again
+across his face, called forth, I made no doubt, by the pleasant conviction
+which Mlle. Delhasse had instilled into his mind, and which had caused him
+to dub me a fool for risking my life in the service of a woman who had
+promised all he asked of her.
+
+But the sun sank; the best of the light went; and the officers from
+Pontorson did not come. It was hard on six.
+
+"If we fight to-night, we must fight now!" cried the duke suddenly. "What
+the plague has become of the fellows?"
+
+"It's not too dark for me," said I.
+
+"But it soon will be for me," he answered. "Come, are we to wait till
+to-morrow?"
+
+"We'll wait till to-morrow," said I, "if you'll promise not to seek to see
+or speak to Mlle. Delhasse till to-morrow. Otherwise we'll fight tonight,
+seconds or no seconds, light or no light!"
+
+I never understood perfectly the temper of the man, nor the sudden gusts
+of passion to which, at a word that chanced to touch him, he was subject.
+Such a storm caught him now, and he bounded up from where he sat, cursing
+me for an insolent fellow who dared to put him under terms--for a fool who
+flattered himself that all women loved him--and for many other things
+which it is not well to repeat. So that at last I said:
+
+"Lead the way, then: you know the best place, I suppose."
+
+Still muttering in fury, cursing now me, now the neglectful seconds, he
+strode rapidly on to the sands and led the way at a quick pace, walking
+nearly toward the setting sun. The land trended the least bit outward
+here, and the direction kept us well under the lee of a rough stone wall
+that fringed the sands on the landward side. Stunted bushes raised their
+heads above the wall, and the whole made a perfect screen. Thus we walked
+for some ten minutes with the sun in our eyes and the murmur of the sea in
+our ears. Then at a spot where the bushes rose highest the duke abruptly
+stopped, saying, "Here," and took the case of pistols out of his pocket.
+He examined the loading, handing each in turn to me. While this was being
+done neither of us spoke. Then he held them both out, the stocks towards
+me; and I took the one nearest to my hand. The duke laid the other down on
+the sands and motioned me to follow his example; and he took his
+handkerchief out of his pocket and wound it round his right hand,
+confining the fingers closely.
+
+"Tie the knot, if you can," said he, holding out his hand thus bound.
+
+"So far I am willing to trust you," said I; but he bowed ironically as he
+answered:
+
+"It will be awkward enough anyhow for the one of us that chances to kill
+the other, seeing that we have no seconds or witnesses; but it would look
+too black against me, if my right hand were free while yours is in a
+sling. So pray, Mr. Aycon, do not insist on trusting me too much, but tie
+the knot if your wounded arm will let you."
+
+Engrossed with my thoughts and my schemes, I had not dwelt on the danger
+to which he called my attention, and I admit that I hesitated.
+
+"I have no wish to be called a murderer," said I. "Shall we not wait again
+for M. de Vieuville and his friend?"
+
+"Curse them!" said he, fury in his eye again. "By Heavens, if I live, I'll
+have a word with them for playing me such a trick! The light is all but
+gone now. Come, take your place. There is little choice."
+
+"You mean to fight, then?"
+
+"Not if you will leave me in peace: but if not--"
+
+"Let us go back to the inn and fight to-morrow: and meanwhile things shall
+stand as they are," said I, repeating my offer, in the hope that he would
+now be more reasonable.
+
+He looked at me sullenly; then his rage came again upon him, and he cried:
+
+"Take your place: stand where you like, and, in God's name, be quick!" And
+he paused, and then added: "I cannot live another night--" And he broke
+off again, and finished by crying: "Quick! Are you ready?"
+
+Seeing there was no help for it, I took up a position. No more words
+passed between us, but with a gesture he signed to me to move a little:
+and thus he adjusted our places till we were opposite one another, about
+two yards between us, and each presenting his side direct to the sun, so
+that its slanting rays troubled each of us equally, and that but little.
+Then he said:
+
+"I will step back five paces, and do you do the like. When we are at the
+distance, do you count slowly, 'One--two--three,' and at 'Three' we will
+fire."
+
+I did not like having to count, but it was necessary that one of us
+should; and he, when I pressed him, would not. Therefore it was arranged
+as he said. And I began to step back, but for an instant he stayed me. He
+was calm now, and he spoke in quiet tones.
+
+"Even now, if you will go!" said he. "For the girl is mine; and I think
+that, and not my life or death, is what you care about."
+
+"The girl is not yours and never will be," said I. But then I remembered
+that, the seconds not having come, my scheme had gone astray, and that if
+he lived in strength, Marie would be well-nigh at his mercy. And on that I
+grew stern, and the desire for his blood came on me; and he, I think, saw
+it in my face, for he smiled, and without more turned and walked to his
+place. And I did the like; and we turned round again and stood facing one
+another.
+
+All this time my pistol had hung in the fingers of my right hand. I took
+it now in my left, and looked to it, and cried to the duke:
+
+"Are you ready?"
+
+And he answered easily:
+
+"Yes, I'm ready."
+
+Then I raised my arm and took my aim,--and if the aim were not true on his
+heart, my hand and not my will deserves the praise of Mercy,--and I cried
+aloud:
+
+"One!" and paused; and cried "Two!"
+
+And as the word left my lips--before the final fatal "Three!" was so much
+as ready to my tongue--while I yet looked at the duke to see that I was
+not taking him unawares--loud and sharp two shots rang out at the same
+instant in the still air: I felt the whizz of a bullet, as it shaved my
+ear; and the duke, without a sound, fell forward on the sands, his pistol
+exploding as he fell.
+
+After all we had our witnesses!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+The Duke's Epitaph.
+
+
+For a moment I stood in amazement, gazing at my opponent where he lay
+prostrate on the sands. Then, guided by the smoke which issued from the
+bushes, I darted across to the low stone wall and vaulted on to the top of
+it. I dived into the bushes, parting them with head and hand: I was
+conscious of a man's form rushing by me, but I could pay no heed to him,
+for right in front of me, in the act of re-loading his pistol, I saw the
+burly inn-keeper Jacques Bontet. When his eyes fell on me, as I leaped out
+almost at his very feet, he swore an oath and turned to run. I raised my
+hand and fired. Alas! the Duke of Saint-Maclou had been justified in his
+confidence; for, to speak honestly, I do not believe my bullet went within
+a yard of the fugitive. Hearing the shot and knowing himself unhurt, he
+halted and faced me. There was no time for re-loading. I took my pistol by
+the muzzle and ran at him. My right arm was nearly useless; but I took it
+out of the sling and had it ready, for what it was worth. I saw that the
+fellow's face was pale and that he displayed no pleasure in the game. But
+he stood his ground; and I, made wary by the recollection of my maimed
+state, would not rush on him, but came to a stand about a yard from him,
+reconnoitering how I might best spring on him. Thus we rested for a moment
+till remembering that the duke, if he were not already dead, lay at the
+mercy of the other scoundrel, I gathered myself together and threw myself
+at Jacques Bontet. He also had clubbed his weapon, and he struck wildly at
+me as I came on. My head he missed, and the blow fell on my right
+shoulder, settling once for all the question whether my right arm was to
+be of any use or not. Yet its uselessness mattered not, for I countered
+his blow with a better, and the butt of my pistol fell full and square on
+his forehead. For a moment he stood looking at me, with hatred and fear in
+his eyes: then, as it seemed to me, quite slowly his knees gave way under
+him; his face dropped down from mine; he might have been sinking into the
+ground, till at last, his knees being bent right under him, uttering a low
+groan, he toppled over and lay on the ground.
+
+Spending on him and his state no more thought that they deserved, I
+snatched his pistol from him (for mine was broken at the junction of
+barrel and stock), and, without waiting to load (and indeed with one hand
+helpless and in the agitation which I was suffering it would have taken me
+more than a moment), I hastened back to the wall, and, parting the bushes,
+looked over. It was a strange sight that I saw. The duke was no longer
+prone on his face, as he had fallen, but lay on his back, with his arms
+stretched out, crosswise; and by his side knelt a small spare man, who
+searched, hunted, and rummaged with hasty, yet cool and methodical, touch,
+every inch of his clothing. Up and down, across and across, into every
+pocket, along every lining, aye, down to the boots, ran the nimble
+fingers; and in the still of the evening, which seemed not broken but
+rather emphasized by the rumble of the tide that had begun to come in over
+the sands from the Mount, his passionate curses struck my ears. I
+recollect that I smiled--nay, I believe that I laughed--for the man was my
+old acquaintance Pierre--and Pierre was still on the track of the
+Cardinal's Necklace; and he had not doubted, any more than I had doubted,
+that the duke carried it upon his person. Yet Pierre found it not, for he
+was growing angry now; he seemed to worry the still body, pushing it and
+tossing the arms of it to and fro as a puppy tosses a slipper or a
+cushion. And all the while the unconscious face of the Duke of
+Saint-Maclou was turned up to heaven, and a stiff smile seemed to mock the
+baffled plunderer. And I also wondered where the necklace was.
+
+Then I let myself down on to the noiseless sands and stole across to the
+spot where the pair were. Pierre's hands were searching desperately and
+wildly now; he no longer expected to find, but he could not yet believe
+that the search was in very truth in vain. Absorbed in his task, he heard
+me not; and coming up I set my foot on the pistol that lay by him, and
+caught him, as the duke had caught Lafleur his comrade, by the nape of the
+neck, and said to him, in a bantering tone:
+
+"Well, is it not there, my friend?"
+
+He wriggled; but the strength of the little man in a struggle at close
+quarters was as nothing, and I held him easily with my one sound hand. And
+I mocked him, exhorting him to look again, telling him that everything was
+not to be seen from a stable, and bidding him call Lafleur from hell to
+help him. And under my grip he grew quiet and ceased to search; and I
+heard nothing but his quick breathing. And I laughed at him as I plucked
+him off the duke and flung him on his back on the sands, and stood looking
+down on him. But he asked no mercy of me; his small eyes answered defiance
+back to me, and he glanced still wistfully at the quiet man beside us.
+
+Yet he was to escape me--with small pain to me, I confess. For at the
+moment a cry rang loud in my ear: I knew the voice; and though I kept my
+foot on Pierre's pistol, yet I turned my head. And on the instant the
+fellow sprang to his feet, and, with an agility that I could not have
+matched, started running across the sands toward the Mount. Before I had
+realized what he was about, he had thirty yards' start of me. I heard the
+water rushing in now; he must wade deep, nay, he must swim to win the
+Mount. But from me he was safe, for I was no such runner as he. Yet, had
+he and I been alone, I would have pursued him. But the cry rang out again,
+and, giving no more thought to him, I turned whither Marie Delhasse, come
+in pursuance of my directions, stood with a hand pointed in questioning at
+the duke, and the pistol that I had given her fallen from her fingers on
+the sand. And she swayed to and fro, till I set my arm round her and
+steadied her.
+
+"Have you killed him?" she asked in a frightened whisper.
+
+"I did not so much as fire at him," I answered. "We were attacked by
+thieves."
+
+"By thieves?"
+
+"The inn-keeper and another. They thought that he carried the necklace,
+and tracked us here."
+
+"And did they take it?"
+
+"It was not on him," I answered, looking into her eyes.
+
+She raised them to mine and said simply:
+
+"I have it not;" and with that, asking no more, she drew near to the duke,
+and sat down by him on the sand, and lifted his head on to her lap, and
+wiped his brow with her handkerchief, saying in a low voice, "Is he dead?"
+
+Now, whether it be, as some say, that the voice a man loves will rouse him
+when none else will, or that the duke's swoon had merely come to its
+natural end, I know not; but, as she spoke, he, who had slept through
+Pierre's rough handling, opened his eyes, and, seeing where he was, tried
+to raise his hand, groping after hers: and he spoke, with difficulty
+indeed, yet plainly enough, saying:
+
+"The rascals thought I had the necklace. They did not know how kind you
+had been, my darling."
+
+I started where I stood. Marie grew red and then white, and looked down at
+him no longer with pity, but with scorn and anger on her face.
+
+"I have it not," she said again. "For all heaven, I would not touch it!"
+
+And she looked up to me as she said it, praying me with her eyes to
+believe.
+
+But her words roused and stung the duke to an effort and an activity that
+I thought impossible to him; for he rolled himself from her lap, and,
+raising himself on his hand, with half his body lifted from the ground,
+said in a loud voice:
+
+"You have it not? You haven't the necklace? Why, your message told me that
+you would never part from it again?"
+
+"I sent no message," she answered in a hard voice, devoid of pity for him;
+how should she pity him? "I sent no message, save that I would sooner die
+than see you again."
+
+Amazement spread over his face even in the hour of his agony.
+
+"You sent," said he, "to say that you would await me to-night, and to ask
+for the necklace to adorn yourself for my coming."
+
+Though he was dying, I could hardly control myself to hear him speak such
+words. But Marie, in the same calm scornful voice asked:
+
+"By whom did the message come?"
+
+"By your mother," said he, gazing at her eagerly. "And I sent mine--the
+one I told you--by her. Marie, was it not true?" he cried, dragging
+himself nearer to her.
+
+"True!" she echoed--and no more.
+
+But it was enough. For an instant he glared at her; then he cried:
+
+"That old fiend has played a trick on me! She has got the necklace!"
+
+And I began to understand the smile that I had seen on Mme. Delhasse's
+face, and her marvelous good humor; and I began to have my opinion
+concerning her evening stroll to Pontorson. Bontet and Pierre had been
+matched against more than they thought.
+
+The duke, painfully supported on his hand, drew nearer still to Marie; but
+she rose to her feet and retreated a pace as he advanced. And he said:
+
+"But you love me, Marie? You would have--"
+
+She interrupted him.
+
+"Above all men I loathe you!" she said, looking on him with shrinking and
+horror in her face.
+
+His wound was heavy on him--he was shot in the stomach and was bleeding
+inwardly--and had drawn his features; his pain brought a sweat on his
+brow, and his arm, trembling, scarce held him. Yet none of these things
+made the anguish in his eyes as he looked at her.
+
+"This is the man I love," said she in calm relentlessness.
+
+And she put out her hand and took mine, and drew me to her, passing her
+arm through mine. The Duke of Saint-Maclou looked up at us; then he
+dropped his head, heavily and with a thud on the sand, and so lay till we
+thought he was dead.
+
+Yet it might be that his life could be saved, and I said to Marie:
+
+"Stay by him, while I run for help."
+
+"I will not stay by him," she said.
+
+"Then do you go," said I. "Stop the first people you meet; or, if you see
+none, go to the inn. And bid them bring help to carry a wounded man and
+procure a doctor."
+
+She nodded her head, and, without a glance at him, started running along
+the sands toward the road. And I, left alone with him, sat down and raised
+him, as well as I could, turning his face upward again and resting it on
+my thigh. And I wiped his brow. And, after a time, he opened his eyes.
+
+"Help will be here soon," I said. "She has gone to bring help."
+
+Full ten minutes passed slowly; he lay breathing with difficulty, and from
+time to time I wiped his brow. At last he spoke.
+
+"There's some brandy in my pocket. Give it me," he said.
+
+I found the flask and gave him some of its contents, which kept the life
+in him for a little longer. And I was glad to feel that he settled
+himself, as though more comfortably, against me.
+
+"What happened?" he asked very faintly.
+
+And I told him what had happened, as I conceived it--how that Bontet must
+have given shelter to Pierre, till such time as escape might be possible;
+but how that, when Bontet discovered that the necklace was in the inn, the
+two scoundrels, thinking that they might as well be hanged for a sheep as
+for a lamb, had determined to make another attempt to secure the coveted
+spoil; how, in pursuance of this scheme, Bontet had, as I believed,
+suppressed the duke's message to his friends at Pontorson, with the intent
+to attack us, as they had done, on the sands; and I added that he himself
+knew, better than I, what was likely to have become of the necklace in the
+hands of Mme. Delhasse.
+
+"For my part," I concluded, "I doubt if Madame will be at the inn to
+welcome us on our return."
+
+"She came to me and told me that Marie would give all I asked, and I gave
+her the necklace to give to Marie; and believing what she told me, I was
+anxious not to fight you, for I thought you had nothing to gain by
+fighting. Yet you angered me, so I resolved to fight."
+
+He seemed to have strength for nothing more; yet at the end, before life
+left him, one strange last change came over him. Both his rough passion
+and the terrible abasement of defeat seemed to leave him, and his face
+became again the face of a well-bred, self-controlled man. There was a
+helpless effort at a shrug of his shoulders, a scornful slight smile on
+his lips, and a look of recognition, almost of friendliness, almost of
+humor, in his eyes, as he said to me, who still held his head:
+
+"_Mon Dieu_, but I've made a mess of it, Mr. Aycon!"
+
+And I do not know that anyone could better this epitaph which the Duke of
+Saint-Maclou composed for himself in the last words he spoke this side the
+grave.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+A Passing Carriage.
+
+
+When I saw that the Duke of Saint-Maclou was dead, I laid him down on the
+sands, straightening him into a seemly posture; and I closed his eyes and
+spread his handkerchief over his face. Then I began to walk up and down
+with folded arms, pondering over the life and fate of the man and the
+strange link between us which the influence of two women had forged. And I
+recognized also that an hour ago the greater likelihood had been that I
+should be where he lay, and he be looking down on me. _Dis aliter visum._
+His own sin had stretched him there, and I lived to muse on the wreck--on
+the "mess" as he said in self-mockery--that he had made of his life. Yet,
+as I had felt when I talked to him before, so I felt now, that his had
+been the hand to open my eyes, and from his mighty but base love I had
+learned a love as strong and, as I could in all honesty say, more pure.
+
+The sun was quite gone now, the roll of the tide was nearer, and water
+gleamed between us and the Mount. But we were beyond its utmost rise, save
+at a spring tide, and I waited long, too engrossed in my thoughts to be
+impatient for Marie's return. I did not even cross the wall to see how
+Bontet fared under the blow I had given him--whether he were dead, or lay
+still stunned, or had found life enough to crawl away. In truth, I cared
+not then.
+
+Presently across the sands, through the growing gloom, I saw a group
+approaching me. Marie I knew by her figure and gait and saw more plainly,
+for she walked a little in front as though she were setting the example of
+haste. The rest followed together; and, looking past them, I could just
+discern a carriage which had been driven some way on to the sands. One of
+the strangers wore top-boots and the livery of a servant. As they
+approached, he fell back, and the remaining two--a man and a woman on his
+arm--came more clearly into view. Marie reached me some twenty yards ahead
+of them.
+
+"I met no one till I was at the inn," she said, "and then this carriage
+was driving by; and I told them that a gentleman lay hurt on the sands,
+and they came to help you to carry him up."
+
+I nodded and walked forward to meet them; for by now I knew the man, yes,
+and the woman, though she wore a veil. And it was too late to stop their
+approach. Uncovering my head, I stepped up to them, and they stopped in
+surprise at seeing me. For the pair were Gustave de Berensac and the
+duchess. He had gone, as he told me afterward, to see the duchess, and
+they had spent the afternoon in a drive, and she was going to set him down
+at his friend's quarters in Pontorson, when Marie met them, and not
+knowing them nor they her (though Gustave had once, two years before,
+heard her sing) had brought them on this errand.
+
+The little duchess threw up her veil. Her face was pale, her lips
+quivered, and her eyes asked a trembling question. At the sight of me I
+think she knew at once what the truth was: it needed but the sight of me
+to let light in on the seemingly obscure story which Marie had told, of a
+duel planned, and then interrupted by a treacherous assault and attempted
+robbery. With my hand I signed to the duchess to stop; but she did not
+stop, but walked past me, merely asking:
+
+"Is he badly hurt?"
+
+I caught her by the arm and held her.
+
+"Yes," said I, "badly;" and I felt her eyes fixed on mine.
+
+Then she said, gently and calmly:
+
+"Then he is dead?"
+
+"Yes, he is dead," I answered, and loosed her arm.
+
+Gustave de Berensac had not spoken: and he now came silently to my side,
+and he and I followed a pace or two behind the duchess. The servant had
+halted ten or fifteen yards away. Marie had reached where the duke lay and
+stood now close by him, her arms at her side and her head bowed. The
+duchess walked up to her husband and, kneeling beside him, lifted the
+handkerchief from his face. The expression wherewith he had spoken his
+epitaph--the summary of his life--was set on his face, so that he seemed
+still to smile in bitter amusement. And the little duchess looked long on
+the face that smiled in contempt on life and death alike. No tears came in
+her eyes and the quiver had left her lips. She gazed at him calmly, trying
+perhaps to read the riddle of his smile. And all the while Marie Delhasse
+looked down from under drooping lids.
+
+I stepped up to the duchess' side. She saw me coming and turned her eyes
+to mine.
+
+"He looked just like that when he asked me to marry him," she said, with
+the simple gravity of a child whose usual merriment is sobered by
+something that it cannot understand.
+
+I doubted not that he had. Life, marriage, death--so he had faced them
+all, with scorn and weariness and acquiescence--all, save that one passion
+which bore him beyond himself.
+
+The duchess spread the handkerchief again over the dead man's face, and
+rose to her feet. And she looked across the dead body of the duke at Marie
+Delhasse. I knew not what she would say, for she must have guessed by now
+who the girl was that had brought her to the place. Suddenly the question
+came in a tone of curiosity, without resentment, yet tinctured with a
+delicate scorn, as though spoken across a gulf of difference:
+
+"Did you really care for him at all?"
+
+Marie started, but she met the duchess' eyes and answered in a low voice
+with a single word:
+
+"No."
+
+"Ah, well!" said the little duchess with a sigh; and, if I read aright
+what she expressed, it was a pitying recognition of the reason in that
+answer: he could not have expected anyone to love him, she seemed to say.
+And if that were so, then indeed had the finger of truth guided the duke
+in the penning of his epitaph.
+
+We three, who were standing round the body, seemed sunk in our own
+thoughts, and it was Gustave de Berensac who went to the servant and bade
+him bring the carriage nearer to where we were; and when it was come, they
+two lifted the duke in and disposed his body as well as they could. The
+man mounted the box, and at a foot-pace we set out. The duchess had not
+spoken again, nor had Marie Delhasse; but when I took my place by Marie
+the duchess suffered Gustave to join her, and in this order we passed
+along. But before we had gone far, when indeed we had but just reached the
+road, we met four of the police hurrying along; and before they came to us
+or saw what was in the carriage, one cried:
+
+"Have you seen a small spare man pass this way lately? He would be running
+perhaps, or walking fast."
+
+I stepped forward and drew them aside, signing the carriage to go on and
+to the others to follow it.
+
+"I can tell you all there is to be told about him, if you mean the man
+whom I think you mean," said I. "But I doubt if you will catch him now."
+
+And with that I told them the story briefly, and so far as it affected the
+matter they were engaged upon; and they heard it with much astonishment.
+For they had tracked Pierre (or Raymond Pinceau as they called him, saying
+it was his true name) to Bontet's stable, on the matter of the previous
+attempt on the necklace and the death of Lafleur, and on no other, and did
+not think to hear such a sequel as I unfolded to them.
+
+"And if you will search," said I, "some six yards behind the wall, and
+maybe a quarter of a mile from the road, I fancy you will find Bontet; he
+may have crawled a little way, but could not far, I think. As for the Duke
+of Saint-Maclou, gentlemen, his body was in the carriage that passed you
+this moment. And I am at your service, although I would desire, if it be
+possible, to be allowed to follow my friends."
+
+There being but four of them and their anxiety being to achieve the
+capture of Pierre, they made no difficulty of allowing me to go on my way,
+taking from me my promise to present myself before the magistrate at
+Avranches next day; and leaving two to seek for Bontet, the other two made
+on, in the hope of finding a boat to take them to the Mount, whither they
+conceived the escaped man must have directed his steps.
+
+Thus delayed, I was some time behind the others in reaching the inn, and I
+found Gustave waiting for me in the entrance. The body of the duke had
+been carried to his own room and a messenger sent to procure a proper
+conveyance. Marie Delhasse was upstairs, and Gustave's message to me was
+that the duchess desired to see me.
+
+"Nay," said I, "there is one thing I want to do before that;" and I called
+to a servant girl who was hovering between terror and excitement at the
+events of the evening, and asked her whether Mme. Delhasse had returned.
+
+"No, sir," she answered. "The lady left word that she would be back in
+half an hour, but she has not yet returned."
+
+Then I said to Gustave de Berensac, laying my hand on his shoulder:
+
+"When I am married, Gustave, you will not meet my mother-in-law in my
+house;" and I left Gustave staring in an amazement not unnatural to his
+ignorance. And I allowed myself to be directed by the servant girl to
+where the duchess sat.
+
+The duchess waited till the door was shut, and then turned to me as if
+about to speak, but I was beforehand with her; and I began:
+
+"Forgive me for speaking of the necklace, but I fear it is still missing."
+
+The duchess looked at me scornfully.
+
+"He gave it to the girl again, I suppose?" she asked.
+
+"He gave it," I answered, "to the girl's mother, and she, I fear, has made
+off with it;" and I told the duchess how Mme. Delhasse had laid her plot.
+The duchess heard me in silence, but at the end she remarked:
+
+"It does not matter. I would never have worn the thing again; but it was a
+pretty plot between them."
+
+"The duke had no thought," I began, "but that--"
+
+"Oh, I meant between mother and daughter," said the duchess. "The mother
+gets the diamonds from my husband; the daughter, it seems, Mr. Aycon, is
+likely to get respectability from you; and I suppose they will share the
+respective benefits when this trouble has blown over."
+
+It was no use to be angry with her; to confess the truth, I felt that
+anger would come ill from me. So I did but say very quietly:
+
+"I think you are wrong. Mlle. Delhasse knew nothing of her mother's
+device."
+
+"You do not deny all of what I say," observed the duchess.
+
+"Mlle. Delhasse," I returned, "is in no need of what you suggest; but I
+hope that she will be my wife."
+
+"And some day," said the duchess, "you will see the necklace--or perhaps
+that would not be safe. Madame will send the money."
+
+"When it happens," said I, "on my honor, I will write and tell you."
+
+The duchess, with a toss of her head which meant "Well, I'm right and
+you're wrong," rose from her seat.
+
+"I must take poor Armand home," said she. "M. de Berensac is going with
+me. Will you accompany us?"
+
+"If you will give me a delay of one hour, I will most willingly."
+
+"What have you to do in that hour, Mr. Aycon?"
+
+"I purpose to escort Mlle. Delhasse back to the convent and leave her
+there. I suppose we shall all have to answer some questions in regard to
+this sad matter, and where can she stay near Avranches save there?"
+
+"She certainly can't come to my house," said the duchess.
+
+"It would be impossible under the circumstances," I agreed.
+
+"Under any circumstances," said the duchess haughtily.
+
+By this time a covered conveyance had been procured, and when the duchess,
+having fired her last scornful remark at me, walked to the door of the
+inn, the body of the duke was being placed in it. Gustave de Berensac
+assisted the servant, and their task was just accomplished when Jacques
+Bontet was carried by two of the police to the door. The man was alive and
+would recover, they said, and be able to stand his trial. But as yet no
+news had come of the fortune that attended the pursuit of Raymond Pinceau,
+otherwise known as Pierre. It was conjectured that he must have had a boat
+waiting for him at or near the Mount, and, gaining it, had for the moment
+at least made good his escape.
+
+"But we shall find about that from Bontet," said one of them, with a
+complacent nod at the fellow who lay still in a sort of stupor, with
+blood-stained bandages round his head.
+
+I stood by the door of the duchess' carriage, in which she and Gustave
+were to follow the body of the duke, and when she came to step in I
+offered her my hand. But she would have none of it. She got in unassisted,
+and Gustave followed her. They were about to move off, when suddenly,
+running from the house in wild dismay, came Marie Delhasse, and caring for
+none of those who stood round, she seized my arm, crying:
+
+"My mother is neither in the sitting room nor in her bedroom! Where is
+she?"
+
+Now I saw no need to tell Marie at that time what had become of Mme.
+Delhasse. The matter, however, was not left in my hands; no, nor in those
+of Gustave de Berensac, who called out hastily to the driver, "Ready! Go
+on, go on!" The duchess called "Wait!" and then she turned to Marie
+Delhasse and said in calm cold tones:
+
+"You ask where your mother is. Well, then, where is the necklace?"
+
+Marie drew back as though she had been struck; yet her grip did not leave
+my arm, but tightened on it.
+
+"The necklace?" she gasped.
+
+And the duchess, using the most scornful words she knew and giving a short
+little laugh, said.
+
+"Your mother has levanted with the necklace. Of course you didn't know!"
+
+Thus, if Marie Delhasse had been stern to the Duke of Saint-Maclou when he
+lay dying, his wife avenged him to the full and more. For at the words, at
+the sight of the duchess' disdainful face and of my troubled look, Marie
+uttered a cry and reeled and sank half-fainting in my arms.
+
+"Oh, drive on!" said the Duchess of Saint-Maclou in a wearied tone.
+
+And away they drove, leaving us two alone. Nor did Marie speak again,
+unless it were in distressed incoherent protests, till, an hour later, I
+delivered her into the charge of the Mother Superior at the convent by the
+side of the bay. And the old lady bade me wait till she saw Marie
+comfortably bestowed, and then she returned to me and we walked side by
+side for a while in the little burying-ground, she listening to an outline
+of my story. Perhaps I, in a lover's zeal, spoke harshly of the duchess;
+for the old lady put her hand upon my arm and said to me:
+
+"It was not for losing the diamonds that her heart was sore--poor silly
+child!"
+
+And, inasmuch as I doubted whether my venerable friend thought that it was
+for the loss of her husband either, I held my peace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+From Shadow to Sunshine.
+
+
+There remains yet one strange and terrible episode of which I must tell,
+though indeed, I thank God, I was in no way a witness of it. A week after
+the events which I have set down, while Marie still lay prostrate at the
+convent, and I abode at my old hotel in Avranches, assisting to the best
+of my power in the inquiry being held by the local magistrate, an officer
+of police arrived from Havre; and when the magistrate had heard his story,
+he summoned me from the ante-room where I was waiting, and bade me also
+listen to the story. And this it was:
+
+At the office where tickets were taken for a ship on the point to make the
+voyage to America, among all the crowd about to cross, it chanced that two
+people met one another--an elderly woman whose face was covered by a thick
+veil, and a short spare man who wore a fair wig and large red whiskers.
+Yet, notwithstanding these disguises, the pair knew one another. For at
+first sight of the woman, the man cowered away and tried to hide himself;
+while she, perceiving him, gave a sudden scream and clutched eagerly at
+the pocket of her dress.
+
+Seeing himself feared, the ruffian took courage, his quick brain telling
+him that the woman also was seeking to avoid recognition. And when she had
+taken her ticket, he contrived to see the book and, finding a name which
+he did not know as hers, he tracked her to the inn where she was lodging
+till the vessel should start. When he walked into the inn, she shrank
+before him and turned pale--for he caught her with the veil off her
+face--and again she clutched at her pocket. He sat down near her: for a
+while she sat still; then she rose and walked out into the air, as though
+she went for a walk. But he, suspecting rightly that she would not return,
+tracked her again to another inn, meaner and more obscure than the first,
+and, walking in, he sat down by her. And again the third time this was
+done: and there were people who had been at each of the inns to speak to
+it: and those at the third inn said that the woman looked as though Satan
+himself had taken his place by her--so full of helplessness and horror was
+she; while the man smiled under alert bright eyes that would not leave her
+face, except now and again for a swift watchful glance round the room. For
+he was now hunter and hunted both; yet, like a dog that will be slain
+rather than loose his hold, he chose to risk his own life, if by that he
+might not lose sight of the unhappy woman. Two lives had been spent
+already in the quest: a third was nought to him; and the woman's air and
+clutching of her pocket had set an idea afloat in his brain. The vessel
+was to sail at six the next morning; and it was eight in the evening when
+the man sat down opposite the woman in the third inn they visited--it was
+no better than a drinking shop near the quays. For half an hour they sat,
+and there was that in their air that made them observed. Suddenly the man
+crossed over to the woman and whispered in her ear. She started, crying
+low yet audibly, "You lie!" But he spoke to her again; and then she rose
+and paid her score and walked out of the inn on to the quays, followed by
+her unrelenting attendant. It was dark now, or quite dusk; and a loiterer
+at the door distinguished their figures among the passing crowd but for a
+few yards: then they disappeared; and none was found who had seen them
+again, either under cover or in the open air, that night.
+
+And for my part, I like not to think how the night passed for that
+wretched old woman; for at some hour and in some place, near by the water,
+the man found her alone, and ran his prey to the ground before the
+bloodhounds that were on his track could come up with them.
+
+Indeed he almost won safety, or at least respite; for the ship was already
+moving when she was boarded by the police, who, searching high and low,
+came at last on the spare man with the red whiskers; these an officer
+rudely plucked off and the fair wig with them, and called the prisoner by
+the name of Pinceau. The little man made one rush with a knife, and,
+foiled in that, another for the side of the vessel. But his efforts were
+useless. He was handcuffed and led on shore. And when he was searched, the
+stones which had gone to compose the great treasure of the family of
+Saint-Maclou--the Cardinal's Necklace--were found hidden here and there
+about him; but the setting was gone.
+
+And the woman? Let me say it briefly. Great were her sins, and not the
+greatest of them was the theft of the Cardinal's Necklace. Yet the greater
+that she took in hand to do was happily thwarted; and I pray that she
+found mercy when the deep dark waters of the harbor swallowed her on that
+night, and gave back her body to a shameful burial.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the quiet convent by the shores of the bay the wind of the world, with
+its burden of sin and sorrow, blows faintly and with tempered force: the
+talk of idle, eager tongues cannot break across the comforting of kind
+voices and the sweet strains of quiet worship. Raymond Pinceau was dead,
+and Jacques Bontet condemned to lifelong penal servitude; and the world
+had ceased to talk of the story that had been revealed at the trial of
+these men, and--what the world loved even more to discuss--of how much of
+the story had not been revealed.
+
+For although M. de Vieuville, President of the Court which tried Bontet,
+and father of Alfred de Vieuville, that friend of the duke's who was to
+have acted at the duel, complimented me on the candor with which I gave my
+evidence, yet he did not press me beyond what was strictly necessary to
+bring home to the prisoners the crimes of murder and attempted robbery
+with which they were charged. Not till I knew the Judge, having been
+introduced to him by his son, did he ask me further of the matter; and
+then, sitting on the lawn of his country-house, I told him the whole
+story, as it has been set down in this narrative, saving only sundry
+matters which had passed between the duchess and myself on the one hand,
+and between Marie Delhasse and myself on the other. Yet I do not think
+that my reticence availed me much against an acumen trained and developed
+by dialectic struggles with generations of criminals. For the first
+question which M. de Vieuville put to me was this:
+
+"And what of the girl, Mr. Aycon? She has suffered indeed for the sins of
+others."
+
+But young Alfred, who was standing by, laid a hand on his father's
+shoulder and said with a laugh:
+
+"Father, when Mr. Aycon leaves us tomorrow, it is to visit the convent at
+Avranches." And the old man held out his hand to me, saying:
+
+"You do well."
+
+To the convent at Avranches then I went one bright morning in the spring
+of the next year; and again I walked with the stately old lady in the
+little burial ground. Yet she was a little less stately, and I thought
+that there was what the profane might call a twinkle in her eye, as she
+deplored Marie's disinclination to become a permanent inmate of the
+establishment over which she presided. And on her lips came an indubitable
+smile when I leaped back from her in horror at the thought.
+
+"There would be none here to throw her troubles in her teeth," pursued the
+Mother Superior, smiling still. "None to remind her of her mother's shame;
+none to lay snares for her; none to remind her of the beauty which has
+brought so much woe on her; no men to disturb her life with their angry
+conflicting passions. Does not the picture attract you, Mr. Aycon?"
+
+"As a picture," said I, "it is almost perfect. There is but one blemish in
+it."
+
+"A blemish? I do not perceive it."
+
+"Why, madame, I cannot find anywhere in your canvas the figure of myself."
+
+With a laugh she turned away and passed through the arched gateway. And I
+saw my friend, the little nun who had first opened the door to me when I
+came seeking the duchess, pass by and pause a moment to look at me. Then I
+was left alone till Marie came to me through the gateway: and I sprang up
+to meet her.
+
+I have been candid throughout, and I will be candid now--even though my
+plain speaking strikes not at myself, but at Marie, who must forgive me as
+best she may. For I believe she meant to marry me from the very first; and
+I doubt whether if I had taken the dismissal she gave, I should have been
+allowed to go far on my solitary way. Indeed I think she did but want to
+hear me say how that all she urged was lighter than a feather against my
+love for her, and, if that were her desire, she was gratified to the full;
+seeing that for a moment she frightened me, and I outdid every lover since
+the world began (it cannot be that I deceive myself in thinking that) in
+vehemence and insistence. So that she reproved me, adding:
+
+"You can hardly speak the truth in all that you say: for at first, you
+know, you were more than half in love with the Duchess of Saint-Maclou."
+
+For a moment I was silenced. Then I looked at Marie: and I found in her
+words no more a rebuke, but a provocation--aye, a challenge to prove that
+by no possibility could I, who loved her so passionately, ever have been
+so much as half in love with any woman in the whole world, the Duchess of
+Saint-Maclou not excepted. And prove it I did that morning in the burial
+ground of the convent, to my own complete satisfaction, and thereby
+overcame the last doubts which afflicted Marie Delhasse.
+
+And if, in spite of that most exhaustive and satisfactory proof, the thing
+proved remained not much more true than the thing disproved--why, it is
+not my fault. For Love has a virtue of oblivion--yes, and a better still:
+that which is past he, exceeding in power all Olympus besides, makes as
+though it had never been, never could have been, and was from the first
+entirely impossible, absurd, and inconceivable. And for an instance of
+what I say--if indeed a further example than my own be needed, which
+should not be the case--let us look at the Duchess of Saint-Maclou
+herself.
+
+For, if I were half in love with the duchess, which I by no means admit,
+modesty shall not blind me from holding that the duchess was as good a
+half in love with me. Yet, when I had been married to Marie Delhasse some
+six months, I received a letter from my good friend Gustave de Berensac,
+informing me of his approaching union with Mme. de Saint-Maclou. And, if I
+might judge from Gustave's letter, he repudiated utterly the idea which I
+have ventured to suggest concerning the duchess.
+
+Two other facts Gustave mentioned--both of them, I think, with a touch of
+apology. The first was that the duchess, being unable to endure the
+horrible associations now indissolubly connected with the Cardinal's
+Necklace, of which she had become owner for the term of her life--
+
+"What? Won't she wear it?" asked my wife at this point: she was (as wives
+will) leaning over my shoulder as I read the letter.
+
+It was what I also had expected to read; but what I did read was that the
+duchess, ingeniously contriving to save both her feelings and her
+diamonds, had caused the stones to be set in a tiara--"which," continued
+Gustave (I am sure he was much in love) "will not have any of the
+unpleasant associations connected with the necklace."
+
+And the second fact? It was this--just this, though it was wrapped up in
+all the roundabout phrases and softened by all the polite expressions of
+friendship of which Gustave was master,--yet just this,--that he was not
+in a position to invite myself and my wife to the wedding! For the little
+duchess, consistent to the end, in spite of his entreaties and protests,
+had resolutely and entirely declined to receive Mrs. Aycon!
+
+I finished the letter and looked up at Marie. And Marie, looking
+thoughtfully down at the paper, observed:
+
+"I always told you that she was fond of you, you know."
+
+But, for my part, I hope that Marie's explanation is not the true one. I
+prefer to attribute the duchess' refusal--in which, I may state, she
+steadily persists--to some mistaken and misplaced sense of propriety; or,
+if that fails me, then I will set it down to the fact that Marie's
+presence would recall too many painful and distressing scenes, and be too
+full of unpleasant associations. Thus understood, the duchess' refusal was
+quite natural and agreed completely with what she had done in respect of
+the necklace--for it was out of the question to turn the edge of the
+difficulty by converting Marie into a tiara!
+
+So the duchess will not receive my wife. But I forgive her--for, beyond
+doubt, but for the little duchess and that indiscretion of hers, I should
+not have received my wife myself!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+_Ninth Edition._
+
+THE PRISONER OF
+
+ZENDA.
+
+By ANTHONY HOPE.
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+
+A SUBURBAN PASTORAL.
+
+By HENRY A. BEERS. Six modern American stories and two old English
+legends.
+
+_Third edition._
+
+
+JOHN INGERFIELD.
+
+By JEROME K. JEROME. A love tragedy of old London (half the book) and four
+short tales.
+
+HENRY HOLT & CO.,
+
+29 WEST 23D STREET, NEW YORK.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE HONORABLE PETER STIRLING.
+
+A NOVEL.
+
+By PAUL LEICESTER FORD. 12mo.
+
+
+_This is pre-eminently a story of American character and American issues.
+The hero, though a New Yorker engaged in Sixth Ward politics, keeps his
+friends true to him, and his record clean. Gotham's Irish politician is
+vividly characterized, though the "boss" is treated rather leniently. A
+"Primary," which to most voters is utterly unknown from actual experience,
+is truthfully described. But the book is far from being all politics, for
+both self-sacrifice and love are prominent factors._
+
+
+JACK O'DOON.
+
+An American Novel by MARIA BEALE.
+
+16mo, (uniform with the _Prisoner of Zenda_) gilt top, with frontispiece.
+75 cents.
+
+_The story of a great sacrifice. Quick in action, with stirring episodes
+on land and sea. The scene is laid on the coast of North Carolina. The
+picture of the profane old sea captain's peculiar household is new in
+fiction. The tragic climax is original and impressive._
+
+HENRY HOLT & CO.,
+
+29 WEST 23D STREET, NEW YORK.
+
+              *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Indiscretion of the Duchess, by Anthony Hope
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13909 ***