ndome's trousseau at Messrs.
----'s Great Linen Warehouse. Each article marked with initials L.
S. V."

Then an illustrated paper published a photographic scene: the duke, his
daughter and his son-in-law sitting at a table playing three-handed
auction-bridge.

And the date also was announced with a great flourish of trumpets: the
4th of May.

And particulars were given of the marriage-settlement. Lupin showed
himself wonderfully disinterested. He was prepared to sign, the
newspapers said, with his eyes closed, without knowing the figure of the
dowry.

All these things drove the old duke crazy. His hatred of Lupin assumed
morbid proportions. Much as it went against the grain, he called on the
prefect of police, who advised him to be on his guard:

"We know the gentleman's ways; he is employing one of his favourite
dodges. Forgive the expression, monsieur le duc, but he is 'nursing'
you. Don't fall into the trap."

"What dodge? What trap?" asked the duke, anxiously.

"He is trying to make you lose your head and to lead you, by
intimidation, to do something which you would refuse to do in cold
blood."

"Still, M. Arsene Lupin can hardly hope that I will offer him my
daughter's hand!"

"No, but he hopes that you will commit, to put it mildly, a blunder."

"What blunder?"

"Exactly that blunder which he wants you to commit."

"Then you think, monsieur le prefet ...?"

"I think the best thing you can do, monsieur le duc, is to go home, or,
if all this excitement worries you, to run down to the country and stay
there quietly, without upsetting yourself."

This conversation only increased the old duke's fears. Lupin appeared to
him in the light of a terrible person, who employed diabolical methods
and kept accomplices in every sphere of society. Prudence was the
watchword.

And life, from that moment, became intolerable. The duke grew more
crabbed and silent than ever and denied his door to all his old friends
and even to Angelique's three suitors, her Cousins de Mussy, d'Emboise
and de Caorches, who were none of them on speaking terms with the
others, in consequence of their rivalry, and who were in the habit of
calling, turn and turn about, every week.

For no earthly reason, he dismissed his butler and his coachman. But he
dared not fill their places, for fear of engaging creatures of Arsene
Lupin's; and his own man, Hyacinthe, in whom he had every confidence,
having had him in his service fo