ard the bell of a garden gate.

'Here we are,' said the doctor, who knew the place. It was where the
Marquis d'Urbin's stud used to be, but for the last two years it had
been for sale. All the horses were gone, except a few colts gambolling
about in fields separated by high barriers.

The duel was to take place at the further end of the estate, on a wide
terrace in front of a white brick stable. It was reached by sloping
paths all overgrown with moss and grass, along which both parties walked
together, mingling, but not speaking, proper as could be; except that
Vedrine, unable to support these fashionable formalities, scandalised
Freydet, who carried his high collar with much gravity, by exclaiming,
'Here's a lily of the valley,' or pulling off a bough, and presently,
struck with the contrast between the splendid passivity of nature and
the futile activity of man, ejaculated, as he gazed on the great woods
that climbed the opposite hill-side, and the distance composed of
clustered roofs, shining water and blue haze, 'How beautiful, how
peaceful!' With an involuntary movement he pointed to the horizon, for
the benefit of some one whose patent leather boots came squeaking behind
him. But oh, what an outpouring of contempt, not only upon the improper
Vedrine, but upon the landscape and the sky! The Prince d'Athis was
unsurpassed in contempt. He expressed it with his eye, the celebrated
eye whose flash had always overcome Bismarck; he expressed it with his
great hooked nose, and with the turned down corners of his mouth; he
expressed it without reason, without inquiry, study, or thought, and his
rise in diplomacy, his successes in love and in society, were all the
work of this supposed contempt!

In reality 'Sammy 'was an empty-headed bauble, a puppet picked by a
clever woman's compassion out of the refuse and oyster shells of the
supper-tavern, raised by her higher and higher, prompted by her what to
say and, more important still, what not to say, lessoned and guided by
her, till the day when, finding himself at the top of the ladder, he
kicked away the stool which he no longer wanted. Society thought him a
very clever fellow, but Vedrine did not share the general opinion; and
the comparison of Talleyrand to a 'silk stocking full of mud' came into
his mind as he watched this highly respectable and proper personage
stalk majestically past him. Evidently the Duchess had her wits about
her when she disguised his emptiness b