"Edward, you are a man of mind; it does not surprise me, but you give me an excellent idea. We must address ourselves to my lord, he is so good a master that he would not refuse to speak for us to the young duke. He can tell him that, leaving for the Legation of Gerolstein, where he is an _attache_, he wishes to dispose of his whole establishment. Let us see: one hundred and sixty thousand francs for the house, all furnished, plate and pictures; fifty thousand francs for the stables and carriages; that makes two hundred and thirty thousand to two hundred and forty thousand francs. It is an excellent affair for a young man who wants everything. He would spend three times this amount before he could get anything half so elegant and select together as this establishment; for it must be acknowledged, Edward, there is no one can equal my lord in knowing how to live." "And horses!" "And good cheer! Godefroi, his cook, leaves here a hundred times better than when he came. My lord has given him excellent counsels-- has enormously refined him." "Besides, they say my lord is such a good player." "Admirable! Gaining large sums with even more indifference than he loses; and yet I have never seen any one lose more gallantly." "What is he going to do now?" "Set out for Germany, in a good traveling carriage, with seven or eight thousand francs, which he knows how to get. Oh! I feel no embarrassment about my lord: he is one who always falls on his feet, as they say." "And he has no more money to inherit?" "None; for his father has only a small competency." "His father?" "Certainly." "My lord's father is not dead?" "He was not about five or six months since. We wrote to him for some family papers." "But he never comes here?" "For a good reason. These fifteen years he has lived in the country, at Angers." "But my lord never goes to see him?" "His father?" "Yes." "Never, never--not he!" "Have they quarreled?" "What I am going to tell you is no secret, for I had it from the confidential agent of the Prince de Noirmont." "The father of Madame de Lucenay?" said Edward, with a cunning and significant look, of which Boyer, faithful to his habits of reserve and discretion, took no notice, but resumed, coldly: "The Duchess de Lucenay is the daughter of the Prince de Noirmont; the father of my lord was intimately connected with the prince. The duchess was then very young, and Saint Remy the elder treated her as familiarly as if she had been his own child. Notwithstanding his sixty years, he is a man of iron character, courageous as a lion, and of a probity that I shall permit myself to designate as marvelous. He possessed almost nothing, and had married, from love, the mother of the viscount, a young person rather rich, who brought a million, at the christening of which we have just had the honor to assist," and Boyer made a low bow. Edward did the same.