Part 39 (1/2)

”Marquise de Lafoudre! My, isn't that fine!”

”Comtesse de St. Estien! Well, I declare!”

”Comtesse de Vinoy. Say, Richard, are you listening? Madame la Comtesse de Vinoy. Great, isn't it!”

Mrs. Van Reinberg smiled upon them all the well-satisfied smile of one whose guerdon is deservedly greater than these. The little dark woman turned towards her abruptly.

”Tell us yours, Edith!” she exclaimed. ”Don't say you're a Princess.”

Mrs. Van Reinberg shook her head, unconsciously her manner was already a little changed. She was, after all, a swan amongst these geese!

”We are to have the Duchy of Annonay,” she answered. ”I suppose I shall be Madame la d.u.c.h.esse.”

Monsieur le Duc touched me on the shoulder.

”Here,” he exclaimed in my ear, ”let's get out of this!”

CHAPTER XXVII

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

Mr. Van Reinberg led the way silently into the smoking-room, and ordered Scotch whisky. ”Mr. Courage,” he said from the depths of his easy-chair, ”I've got to ask you a question. What do you think of us?”

I laughed outright.

”I think,” I answered, ”that you are a very good husband.”

He lit a cigar and pushed the box towards me.

”I'm glad you put it like that,” he said earnestly. ”And yet I guess we're to blame. We've let our wives slip away from us. Only natural, I suppose. We have our battlefields and they must have theirs. We rule the money markets, and they aspire to rule in society. I don't know how to blame my wife, Mr. Courage, but I hope you'll believe me when I tell you this: I'd sooner chuck ten or twenty millions into the Atlantic than be mixed up with this affair.”

”I believe you, Mr. Van Reinberg,” I answered.

He drew a sigh of relief. I think that my a.s.surance pleased him.

”Tell me now,” he said; ”you are a man of common sense. Is that fellow a crank, or is he going to pull this thing off?”

I hesitated.

”His scheme is ingenious enough,” I said, ”and I believe it is quite true that there are a great many people in France who would be glad to see the Monarchy revived. They are a people, too, whom it is easy to catch on the top of a wave of sentiment. But, so far as I can see, there are at least two things against him.”

”I trust,” Mr. Van Reinberg murmured, ”that they are big enough.”

”In the first place,” I continued, ”I doubt whether Mr. de Valentin is a sufficiently heroic figure to fire the imagination of the people. He does not seem to me to have the daring to carry a mob with him, and he will need that. And in the second place--”

”Well?”

I glanced around the room. We were absolutely alone, but I dropped my voice.