e visible from outside through the branches of the
trees, and the wide terraces, where exotic flowers were planted out of
doors for the first time of the season, ran in borders along the whole
length of the quay. The raking of the garden paths traced the light
footprints of summer in the sand, while the soft fall of the water from
the hoses on the lawns was its refreshing song.

All the luxury of the princely residence lay sunning itself in the soft
warmth of the temperature, borrowing a beauty from the silence, the
repose of this noontide hour, the only hour when the roll of carriages
was not to be heard under the arches, nor the banging of the great doors
of the antechamber, and that perpetual vibration which the ringing of
bells upon arrivals or departures sent coursing through the very ivy on
the walls; the feverish pulse of the life of a fashionable house. It was
well known that up to three o'clock the duke held his reception at the
Ministry, and that the duchess, a Swede still benumbed by the snows
of Stockholm, had hardly issued from her drowsy curtains; consequently
nobody came to call, neither visitors or petitioners, and only the
footmen, perched like flamingoes on the deserted flight of steps in
front of the house, gave the place a touch of animation with the slim
shadows of their long legs and their yawning weariness of idlers.

As an exception, however, that day Jenkins's brougham was standing
waiting in a corner of the court-yard. The duke, unwell since the
previous evening, had felt worse after leaving the breakfast-table, and
in all haste had sent for the man of the pearls in order to question him
on his singular condition. Pain nowhere, sleep and appetite as usual;
only an inconceivable lassitude, and a sense of terrible chill which
nothing could dissipate. Thus at that moment, notwithstanding the
brilliant spring sunshine which flooded his chamber and almost
extinguished the fire flaming in the grate, the duke was shivering
beneath his furs, surrounded by screens; and while signing papers for an
_attache_ of his cabinet on a low table of gold lacquer, placed so near
to the fire that it frizzled, he kept holding out his numb fingers
every moment toward the blaze, which might have burned the skin without
restoring circulation.

Was it anxiety caused by the indisposition of his illustrious client?
Jenkins appeared nervous, disquieted, walked backward and forward with
long strides over the carpet, huntin