face a sense of the
humor of the situation fought with the consciousness of its dangers. As
soon as Montresor saw the little Duchess by the fire, he threw up his
hands in relief.

"I breathe again," he said, greeting her with effusion. "Duchess, where
thou goest, I may go. But I feel like a boy robbing a hen-roost. Let me
introduce my friend, General Fergus. Take us both, pray, under your
protection!"

"On the contrary," said the Duchess, as she returned General Fergus's
bow, "you are both so magnificent that no one would dare to
protect you."

For they were both in uniform, and the General was resplendent with
stars and medals.

"We have been dining with royalty." said Montresor. "We want some
relaxation."

He put on his eye-glasses, looked round the room, and gently rubbed his
hands.

"How very agreeable this is! What a charming room! I never saw it
before. What are we doing here? Is it a party? Why shouldn't it be?
Meredith, have you introduced M. du Bartas to the Duchess? Ah, I see--"

For Julie Le Breton was already conversing with the distinguished
Frenchman wearing the rosette of the Legion of Honor in his button-hole,
who had followed Dr. Meredith into the room. As Montresor spoke,
however, she came forward, and in a French which was a joy to the ear,
she presented M. du Bartas, a tall, well-built Norman with a fair
mustache, first to the Duchess and then to Lord Lackington and Jacob.

"The director of the French Foreign Office," said Montresor, in an aside
to the Duchess. "He hates us like poison. But if you haven't already
asked him to dinner--I warned you last week he was coming--pray do
it at once!"

Meanwhile the Frenchman, his introductions over, looked curiously round
the room, studied its stately emptiness, the books on the walls under a
trellis-work, faintly gilt, the three fine pictures; then his eyes
passed to the tall and slender lady who had addressed him in such
perfect French, and to the little Duchess in her flutter of lace and
satin, the turn of her small neck, and the blaze of her jewels. "These
Englishwomen overdo their jewels," he thought, with distaste. "But they
overdo everything. That is a handsome fellow, by-the-way, who was with
_la petite fee_ when we arrived."

And his shrewd, small eyes travelled from Warkworth to the Duchess, his
mind the while instinctively assuming some hidden relation between them.

Meanwhile, Montresor was elaborately informing himself as to Lady H