“Oh, the reason of it was entirely childish,” said the Duke. “I was in a bad temper; and De Relzières said something that annoyed me.” “Then it wasn’t about me; and if it wasn’t about me, it wasn’t really worth while fighting,” said Germaine in a tone of acute disappointment. The mocking light deepened a little in the Duke’s eyes. “Yes. But if I had been killed, everybody would have said, ‘The Duke of Charmerace has been killed in a duel about Mademoiselle Gournay-Martin.’ That would have sounded very fine indeed,” said the Duke; and a touch of mockery had crept into his voice. “Now, don’t begin trying to annoy me again,” said Germaine pettishly. “The last thing I should dream of, my dear girl,” said the Duke, smiling. “And De Relzières? Is he wounded?” said Germaine. “Poor dear De Relzières: he won’t be out of bed for the next six months,” said the Duke; and he laughed lightly and gaily. “Good gracious!” cried Germaine. “It will do poor dear De Relzières a world of good. He has a touch of enteritis; and for enteritis there is nothing like rest,” said the Duke. Sonia was not getting on very quickly with the wedding-cards. Germaine was sitting with her back to her; and over her shoulder Sonia could watch the face of the Duke—an extraordinarily mobile face, changing with every passing mood. Sometimes his eyes met hers; and hers fell before them. But as soon as they turned away from her she was watching him again, almost greedily, as if she could not see enough of his face in which strength of will and purpose was mingled with a faint, ironic scepticism, and tempered by a fine air of race. He finished his tea; then he took a morocco case from his pocket, and said to Germaine, “It must be quite three days since I gave you anything.” He opened the case, disclosed a pearl pendant, and handed it to her. “Oh, how nice!” she cried, taking it. She took it from the case, saying that it was a beauty. She showed it to Sonia; then she put it on and stood before a mirror admiring the effect. To tell the truth, the effect was not entirely desirable. The pearls did not improve the look of her rather coarse brown skin; and her skin added nothing to the beauty of the pearls. Sonia saw this, and so did the Duke. He looked at Sonia’s white throat. She met his eyes and blushed. She knew that the same thought was in both their minds; the pearls would have looked infinitely better there. Germaine finished admiring herself; she was incapable even of suspecting that so expensive a pendant could not suit her perfectly. The Duke said idly: “Goodness! Are all those invitations to the wedding?” “That’s only down to the letter V,” said Germaine proudly. “And there are twenty-five letters in the alphabet! You must be inviting the whole world. You’ll have to have the Madeleine enlarged. It won’t hold them all. There isn’t a church in Paris that will,” said the Duke.