because you said it before I had
begged a favour of you--a favour I had resolved to venture on asking.
But come, though I don't think you a beggar, you shall be sure that I
am one." He rose and laid his hand on Dieppe's shoulder. "Stay with
me for to-night at least--and for as much longer as you will. Nobody
will trouble you. I live in solitude, and your society will lighten
it. Let me ring and give orders for your entertainment?"

Dieppe looked up at him; the next moment he caught his hand, crying,
"With all my heart, dear host! Your only difficulty shall be to get
rid of me."

The Count rang, and directed his servant to prepare the Cardinal's
Room. Dieppe noticed that the order was received with a glance of
surprise, but the master of the house repeated it, and, as the servant
withdrew, added, "It is called after an old member of our family, but I
can answer for its comfort myself, for I have occupied it until--"

"I 'm turning you out?" exclaimed Dieppe.

"I left it yesterday." The Count frowned as he sipped his wine. "I
left it owing to--er--circumstances," he murmured, with some appearance
of embarrassment in his manner.

"His Eminence is restless?" asked the Captain, laughing.

"I beg pardon?"

"I mean--a ghost?"

"No, a cat," was the Count's quiet but somewhat surprising answer.

"I don't mind cats, I am very fond of them," Dieppe declared with the
readiness of good breeding, but he glanced at his host with a curiosity
that would not be stifled. The Count lived in solitude. Half his
house--and that the other half--was brilliantly lighted, and he left
his bedroom because of a cat. Here were circumstances that might set
the least inquisitive of men thinking. It crossed Dieppe's mind that
his host was (he used a mild word) eccentric, but the Count's manner
gave little warrant for the supposition; and Dieppe could not believe
that so courteous a gentleman would amuse himself by making fun of a
guest. He listened eagerly when the Count, after a long silence, went
on to say:

"The reason I put forward must, no doubt, sound ludicrous, but the fact
is that the animal, in itself a harmless beast, became the occasion, or
was made the means, of forcing on me encounters with a person whom I
particularly wish to avoid. You, however, will not be annoyed in that
way."

There he stopped, and turned the conversation to general topics. Never
had Dieppe's politeness been subjected to such a strain.