rest
we will talk later in the day. Monsieur Grisson and I are going to the
telephone. You will find Henri on the terrace."

CHAPTER III

A BODY FROM THE SEINE

"At the sport, my young friend," Henri murmured, from the depths of his
basket chair, "I yield you without question supremacy. Your rude games,
trials mostly of brute strength, do not interest me. Your horsemanship I
must confess that I envy, and I fear that you are a better shot. But two
things remain to me."

"Only two?" Guy murmured. "What unexampled modesty!"

"I can drive a racing automobile at eighty miles an hour, and with the
foils I can play with you."

"I give you the first," Guy answered, "but I'm beginning to fancy myself
a bit with the sticks. Let's have a bout!"

"My dear Guy," Henri exclaimed, "forgive me, but what a crude
suggestion! The first breeze of the day is just coming up from the lake.
Close your eyes as I do. Can't you catch the perfume of the roses and
the late lilac? Exquisite. In half an hour you will see a new green in
the woods there as the sun drops. This is silent joy. You would exchange
it for vulgar movement."

"I don't see anything vulgar about fencing," Guy replied. "It's all
right here, of course, but I'm getting stiff, and I haven't the appetite
of a kitten. I should like a good hour's bout, a swim afterwards in the
baths, and a rub down. Come on, Henri! It'll make us as fit as
possible."

Henri shivered a little.

"My young friend," he murmured, "you move me to despair. How can an
alliance between nations with such contrary ideals be possible? You
would desert a beautiful scene like this to gain by vulgar exercise an
appetite that you may eat. Can't you realize the crudeness of it? Yet I
must remember that you are my guest," he added, striking the bell by his
side. "Antoine shall prepare my linen clothes, and I will give you a
lesson. Antoine," he added, half turning to the man-servant who stood by
his elbow, "my black linen fencing-clothes and shoes in the
dressing-room, and have the floor in the fencing-gallery sprinkled with
sand."

The man bowed, and Henri slowly rose from his chair.

"Don't bother about it, you know, if you mind very much," Guy said.
"Would you rather have a game of billiards, or a swim in the lake?"

Henri thrust his arm through his friend's.

"By no means," he answered. "If we are to do anything at all we will do
the thing in which I excel. It feeds my vanity, which is good