While the amazed duke was searching a reply to this sarcastic sally, the princess gave a reproachful glance to her niece; then, turning to the discomfited nobleman with a forced smile, said playfully: "How much Foedora does like to tease you, my dear duke. This is her way of showing her affection to those she loves." "I will humbly confess, my dear princess," said the duke, anxious to repair his awkward blunder, "that I was so dazzled by those magnificent stones that, for a moment, I forgot to render homage to the charms of the wearer. But--but--may not one be dazzled by the sun while gazing at a charming flower?" "I find your comparison of the sunstroke and the flower so gallant and to the point," retorted the malicious young woman, "that I am tempted to believe it was this very same sunstroke that so outrageously withered these poor flowers," and a gay ripple of laughter broke from her lips, as she pointed to the faded blossoms sent by the duke that evening. The unfortunate man flushed to the roots of his hair, while the princess frowned at her irrepressible niece. "Pray offer your arm to my aunt, my dear duke," resumed the countess, totally indifferent to the divers emotions she had caused. "I promised the embassadress de Sardaigne I would come early, as she is to present me to a relative, and, as you know, we must first visit that enchanted palace you spoke of, in all its details. This is an odd time for such a visit, it is true; but I admit I have a weakness or, rather, a passion, for anything odd. Originality is such a rare, charming thing!" Preceding her aunt and the duke, the bewitching countess ran lightly down the wide stairs of the elegantly furnished house she had rented in the Rue de Rivoli, while in search of the mansion she wished to purchase in Paris. On that evening the duke was to take his friends out in his own carriage; a very permissible liberty, since the bans of his marriage with the countess had already been published. After a few moments of waiting at the door of the mansion, the aunt and niece saw an enormous yellow landau advancing toward them, drawn by two emaciated horses mercilessly lashed by a coachman in red and blue livery. "Why--this is not your carriage?" gasped the countess, gazing at the duke in amazement as the footman opened the _portière_ of the vehicle. "Certainly, madame," he replied. "And what has become of that pretty blue victoria, with the dapple grays, you placed at our disposal yesterday morning?" "Under the present condition of affairs, my dear countess, I may as well make a clean breast of it," rejoined the duke, with touching _abandon_. "That I may not fatigue my valuable horses--for they did cost me enormously--I hire a carriage for the evening. This is a great point of economy, for it is always a risk to take out a valuable turnout at night."