Part 7 (1/2)
”Oh, no I leave myself in your hands--I mean absolutely; and I want also to say, Greville, that this queer affair ought to make us friends”
”It has,” I returned armth ”You dine with the minister next week, I believe”
”Yes, Monday”
We talked for a few ns at home, and then he returned to the subject which just now more immediately interested him ”What about that woman? I have an i, of an adventure Are you not curious?”
”Yes, I am, and my curiosity has ripened There may be some politics in the matter, just as you say If, as is barely possible, it is our international affairs that are involved, it is my duty to follow it up and to know more But how to follow it up? In ay an unknown Aine This, however, is, I think, certain, the count did not want to be involved in an affair of honor about this lady We were to be supposed to have quarreled over cards He wanted her to disappear from the scene But why?”
”Well, it is late,” said Merton, looking at the clock ”Good night I shall stay at home to-morrow until I hear from you and the count”
I may add that Merton at once accepted the count's explanation and called on him The affair of Baron Porthos and ize Soaily aht only with the knife-bowie Merton was furious, and I had hard work to keep hientleman met me, a friend of mine, Lieutenant West, a naval officer, andabout peace or a duel with swords; at which Merton only laughed, saying that when he went ”a-cat-fishi+ng, he went a-cat-fishi+ng,” a piece of national wisdom which I found myself incompetent to e than his namesake
Meanwhile, our minister was very much troubled over the matter, and the count hardly less so But Porthos was as inexorable as his namesake, and Merton merely obstinate It hat the count described as an _impasse_
VIII
At this time the Emperor--for this was in the fall of '62--was busy about his Mexican venture, and our legations were disturbed by vague ruree about a perilous intervention in our affairs, which at hoh, with one disaster after another No one at the legation kne deep the Emperor was in the matter, but there was a chill of expectation in the air, and yet no distinct evidence of the trouble which was brewing
It was, as I have said, an essential part of my work to frequent the best houses and in every way to learn as the tone of feeling It was, in fact, so hostile that it was now and then hard to avoid personal quarrels In England it was, if possible, worse Mr
Gladstone had spoken in public, and arm praise of Mr Jefferson Davis and the confederation Roebuck had described our army as the ”sculand or France
The English premier was, to say the least, unfriendly, and Lord John Russell in their Foreign Office was not much better
Meanwhile I came to know and like the Count le Moyne, as a warm Napoleonist, and whom I had to see often, either on our i this faan to notice that he was distracted and, I thought, worried
When I spoke of it to Merton, he said, ”That's the woman” He had no reason to think so, but he was one of the rare men whose intuitions are apt to be correct This business of the duel went on for a week
To go back a little, I should have said that at the end of his two days' leave Alphonse appeared and asked for three days ain
On the next day but one I riting letters inover the unpleasant news our papers were bringing us
Suddenly Alphonse appeared He waited without a word until I said, ”You have found her”
”Yes; it was all that there is of simple Monsieur had said she is an American--I went to the A, as he res, it was si service When I began to follow her at a distance I saw that she was also followed by one of the best men of the police I know him well I also perceived that, as it seemed to me, the lady was uneasy, and, I think, aware that she atched”
Here Merton stopped hie”