‘I’m quite certain I do. I know I never mean harm. But how are we women expected to behave, then? Oh, I’m unhappy, I am.’ ‘You must abstain from playing.’ ‘It’s that! I’ve lost my money--I forgot. And I shall have to confess it to my duke, though he warned me. Old men hold their fingers up--so! One finger: and you never forget the sight of it, never. It’s a round finger, like the handle of a jug, and won’t point at you when they’re lecturing, and the skin’s like an old coat on gaffer’s shoulders--or, Chloe! just like, when you look at the nail, a rumpled counterpane up to the face of a corpse. I declare, it’s just like! I feel as if I didn’t a bit mind talking of corpses tonight. And my money’s gone, and I don’t much mind. I’m a wild girl again, handsomer than when that----he is a dear, kind, good old nobleman, with his funny old finger: “Susan! Susan!” I’m no worse than others. Everybody plays here; everybody superior. Why, you have played, Chloe.’ ‘Never!’ ‘I’ve heard you say you played once, and a bigger stake it was, you said, than anybody ever did play.’ ‘Not money.’ ‘What then?’ ‘My life.’ ‘Goodness--yes! I understand. I understand everything to-night-men too. So you did!--They’re not so shamefully wicked, Chloe. Because I can’t see the wrong of human nature--if we’re discreet, I mean. Now and then a country dance and a game, and home to bed and dreams. There’s no harm in that, I vow. And that’s why you stayed at this place. You like it, Chloe?’ ‘I am used to it.’ ‘But when you’re married to Count Caseldy you’ll go?’ ‘Yes, then.’ She uttered it so joylessly that Duchess Susan added, with intense affectionateness, ‘You’re not obliged to marry him, dear Chloe.’ ‘Nor he me, madam.’ The duchess caught at her impulsively to kiss her, and said she would undress herself, as she wished to be alone. From that night she was a creature inflamed. CHAPTER VII The total disappearance of the pair of heroes who had been the latest in the conspiracy to vex his delicate charge, gave Mr. Beamish a high opinion of Caseldy as an assistant in such an office as he held. They had gone, and nothing more was heard of them. Caseldy confined his observations on the subject to the remark that he had employed the best means to be rid of that kind of worthies; and whether their souls had fled, or only their bodies, was unknown. But the duchess had quiet promenades with Caseldy to guard her, while Mr. Beamish counted the remaining days of her visit with the impatience of a man having cause to cast eye on a clock. For Duchess Susan was not very manageable now; she had fits of insurgency, and plainly said that her time was short, and she meant to do as she liked, go where she liked, play when she liked, and be an independent woman--if she was so soon to be taken away and boxed in a castle that was only a bigger sedan.