in harmony with the scene.

"I wish to heaven," said I, "there were a question about it anywhere
else. Alas, it is a certainty."

"Why, so is death, sire," cried Varvilliers, "but we do not discuss it
at supper."

"Does M. de Varvilliers quarrel with my choice of a subject?" asked
Wetters. He spoke calmly now, but it was not hard to discern his great
excitement.

"I quarrel, sir, with nobody except quarrellers," answered the Frenchman
impatiently.

"Well, then----" began Wetter.

"I think you forget my presence," I said coldly, "and this lady's also."
I waved my hand toward Coralie. She lay back in her chair, smiling and
holding an unlighted cigarette between her fingers.

"I forget, sire, neither your presence nor your due," said Wetter. With
that he took a pocket-book from his pocket and flung it on the table
before me. "There is my debt," he said.

I sat back in my chair and did not move.

"You choose a strange time for business," I observed. "Vohrenlorf, see
what is in this pocket-book."

Vohrenlorf examined it, then he came and whispered in my ear, "Notes for
90,000 marks." It was the amount Wetter owed me with accrued interest. I
was amazed. He could not have raised the money except at a most
extravagant rate. I made no remark, but I knew that he had risked ruin
by this repayment, and I knew well why he had made it. He would not have
me for creditor as well as for king and rival.

Varvilliers burst out laughing.

"Upon my word," said he, "these gentlemen of the Chamber can think of
nothing but money. Don't you wonder at them, mademoiselle?"

"Money is good to think of," said Coralie reflectively.

"An admirable candour, isn't it, sire?" he said, turning to me and
pointing to Coralie.

I was disturbed and out of humour. Again I was in conflict. I thought of
what she was, and wondered that such men, and men so placed, as Wetter
and I should quarrel about her; I looked in her face and felt a
momentary conviction that all the world might fall to fighting on her
account; at least things more absurd have surely happened. But I
answered smoothly and composedly. (That trick at least I had learned.)

"Sincerity is our hostess's greatest charm," said I.

Wetter laughed loudly and sneeringly. Coralie turned a gaze of
indifferent curiosity on him. He puzzled her, tiresomely sometimes. I
knew that he meant an insult. My blood runs hot at such moments. I was
about to speak when Varvilliers forestalled me.