to him, '_J'aime, tu aimes, il
aime_.' He received the remark, sir, with the utmost amiability."

"He could do no less," said the Duke with a smile.

"But he would have it that this didn't exhaust my treasure of learning.
Therefore, after leaving me for a moment to set straight a difference
that had arisen between his servants and our host, he returned, put away
a leathern case that he had left on the table (concerning which indeed
he seemed more uneasy than would be counted courteous here in England,
seeing that I had been all the while alone in the room with it), and
allowed me to resume my exhibition of French-speaking. To humour him and
to pass away the hour during which I was deprived of the pleasure of
attending your Grace----"

"Yes, yes, Mr Dale. Don't delay in order to compliment me," said the
Duke, smiling still.

"I leant across the table, sir, and I made him a speech that sent him,
to all seeming, half-way out of his senses; for he sprang up, seized his
case, looked at the fastenings, saw to the priming of his pistol, and
finally presumed to exact from me a promise that I would consult nobody
as to the perplexity into which this strange behaviour of his had flung
me. To that I demurred, and hence the quarrel with which I regret most
humbly that your Grace should have been troubled."

"I'm obliged to you, Mr Dale. But what was this wonder-working phrase?"

"Why, sir, just the first that came into my head. I said to the
gentleman--to M. de Fontelles, as I understand him to be called--I said
to him softly and gently--_Je viens, tu viens_----"

The Duke seized me by the arm, with a sudden air of excitement. Carford
stepped forward and stood beside him.

"_Je viens, tu viens_.... Yes! And any more?" cried the Duke.

"Yes, your Grace," I answered, again amazed. "I completed what
grammarians call the Singular Number by adding '_Il vient;_'
whereupon--but I have told you."

"_Il vient?_" cried the Duke and Carford all in a breath.

"_Il vient_," I repeated, thinking now that all the three had run mad.
Carford screened his mouth with his hand and whispered in the Duke's
ear. The Duke nodded and made some answer. Both seemed infinitely
stirred and interested. M. de Fontelles had stood in sullen silence by
the table while I told the story of our quarrel; now his eyes were fixed
intently on the Duke's face.

"But why," said I, "that simple phrase worked such strange agitation in
the gentleman, your Grace'