Part 33 (2/2)

”Let us be friends,” she pleaded. ”Remember, it was fifteen years ago I made the grave mistake of marrying a very charming man--”

”Merci!” cried the Duke.

”--and I did not know that I was thereby denying myself the pleasure of his acquaintance. I have learned too late that marrying a man is only the most civil way of striking him from one's visiting-list.” The d.u.c.h.ess hesitated.

”Frankly, Gaston, I do not regret the past month.”

”It has been adorable!” sighed the Duke.

”Yes,” she admitted; ”except those awkward moments when you would insist on making love to me.”

”But no, madame,” cried he, ”it was precisely--”

”O my husband, my husband!” she interrupted, with a shrug of the shoulders; ”why, you do it so badly!”

The Duc de Puysange took a short turn about the apartment. ”Yet I married you,” said he, ”at sixteen--out of a convent!”

”Mon ami,” she murmured, in apology, ”am I not to be frank with you? Would you have only the connubial confidences?”

”But I had no idea--” he began.

”Why, Gaston, it bored me to the very verge of yawning in my lover's countenance. I, too, had no idea but that it would bore you equally--”

”Hein?” said the Duke.

”--to hear what d'Humieres--”

”He squints!” cried the Duc de Puysange.

”--or de Crequy--”

”That red-haired ape!” he muttered.

”--or d'Arlanges, or--or any of them, was pleased to say. In fact, it was my duty to conceal from my husband anything which might involve him in duels. Now that we are friends, of course it is entirely different.”

The d.u.c.h.ess smiled; the Duke walked up and down the room with the contained ferocity of a caged tiger.

”In duels! in a whole series of duels! So these seducers besiege you in platoons. Ma foi, friends.h.i.+p is a good oculist! Already my vision improves.”

”Gaston!” she cried. The d.u.c.h.ess rose and laid both hands upon his shoulders. ”Gaston--?” she repeated.

For a heart-beat the Duc de Puysange looked into his wife's eyes; then he sadly smiled and shook his head. ”Madame,” said the Duke, ”I do not doubt you. Ah, believe me, I have comprehended, always, that in your keeping my honor was quite safe--far more safe than in mine, as Heaven and most of the fiends well know. You have been a true and faithful wife to a worthless brute who has not deserved it.” He lifted her fingers to his lips. De Puysange stood very erect; his heels clicked together, and his voice was earnest. ”I thank you, madame, and I pray you to believe that I have never doubted you. You are too perfect to err--Frankly, and between friends.”

added the Duke, ”it was your cold perfection which frightened me. You are an icicle, Helene.”

She was silent for a moment. ”Ah!” she said, and sighed; ”you think so?”

”Once, then--?” The Duc de Puysange seated himself beside his wife, and took her hand.

<script>