him, didn't we? You don't
want to pretend that he's alive now, after that jab in the back your
master gave him fifteen years ago?"

Peyrolles wriggled on his chair in an agony of discomfort. "Hush, for
Heaven's sake! Don't talk like that!"

AEsop slapped the table till the glasses rang. "I'll talk as I please."

Peyrolles saw it was useless to argue with the hunchback, and submitted.
"Yes, yes; but let bygones be bygones. About this girl?"

AEsop resumed his narrative. "I sent her and her tribe Franceward from
Madrid. I didn't accompany them, for I'm not fond of companionship; but I
told them to wait me here, and here they are. What place could be more
excellent? All sorts of vagabonds come hither from all parts of the world
at fair-time. How natural that your admirable master should amuse his
leisure by visiting the fair, and in so diverting himself be struck by a
beautiful gypsy girl's resemblance to the features of his dear dead
friend! It is all a romance, friend Peyrolles, and a very good romance.
And I, AEsop, made it."

The hunchback struck an attitude as he spoke, and strove to twist his
evil countenance into a look of inspiration.

Peyrolles was all eagerness now. "Let me see the girl," he pleaded.

AEsop shook his head. "By-and-by. It is understood that if Gonzague
accepts the girl as Nevers's child he takes me into his service in Paris.
Eh?"

Peyrolles nodded. "That is understood."

AEsop yawned on the conclusion of the bargain. "Curse me if I see why he
wants the child when he has got the mother."

Peyrolles again neared, and spoke with a lowered voice: "I can be frank
with you, master AEsop?"

"It's the best plan," AEsop growled.

XII

FLORA

Peyrolles prepared to be frank. He put up his hand, and whispered behind
it cautiously: "The married life of the Prince de Gonzague and the widow
of Nevers has not been ideally happy."

AEsop grinned at him in derision. "You surprise me!" he commented,
ironically.

Peyrolles went on: "The marriage is only a marriage in name. What
arguments succeeded in persuading so young a widow to marry again so soon
I do not, of course, know." He paused for a moment and frowned a little,
for AEsop, though saying nothing, was lolling out his tongue at him
mockingly. Then he went on, with a somewhat ruffled manner: "At all
events, whatever the arguments were, they succeeded, and the Duchess de
Nevers became the Princess de Gonzague. After the ceremony the