"What! is there a but?" asked the duchess. "This is my wife's birthday, and we have twenty-five guests now dining with us." "Well, monsieur, there is a French proverb which says, 'Enough for two is enough for three.' I am sure you will extend the maxim to mean 'Enough for twenty-five is enough for twenty-eight;' for I warn you that Monsieur de Lussac, servant as he is, must dine at table, and he is dying of hunger." "Yes; but don't be uneasy," said the Baron de Lussac. "I'll take off my livery." Monsieur de Vouillé seized his head with both hands, as if he meant to tear out his hair. "What shall I do? what can I do?" he cried. "Come," said the duchess, "let us talk sense." "Talk sense!" said the count; "how can I? I am half crazy." "Evidently not with joy," said the duchess. "No, with terror, madame." "Oh! you exaggerate the situation." "But, madame, you are entering the lion's den. I have the prefect of Vienne and the mayor of Châtellerault at my table." "Very good; then you will present them to me." "Good God! and under what title?" "That of a cousin. You surely have some distant cousin, whose name will answer the purpose." "What an idea, madame!" "Come, put it to use." "I certainly have a cousin in Toulouse,--Madame de la Myre." "The very thing! I am Madame de la Myre." Then turning round in the carriage she offered her hand to an old man about sixty-five years of age, who seemed waiting till the discussion ended before he showed himself. "Come, Monsieur de la Myre," said the duchess, "this is a surprise we are giving our cousin, and we arrive just in time to keep his wife's birthday. Come, cousin!" So saying she jumped lightly out of the carriage and gayly slipped her arm into that of the Comte de Vouillé. "Yes, come!" said Monsieur de Vouillé, his mind made up to risk the adventure into which the duchess was so joyously rushing. "Come!" "Wait for me," cried the Baron de Lussac, jumping into the carriage, which he transformed into a dressing-room, and changing his sky-blue livery for a black surtout coat; "don't leave me behind." "But who the devil are you to be?" asked M. de Vouillé. "Oh! I'll be the Baron de Lussac, and--if Madame will permit me--the cousin of your cousin." "Stop! stop! monsieur le baron," said the old gentleman, who had not yet spoken; "it seems to me that you are taking a great liberty." "Pooh! we are on a campaign," said the duchess; "I permit it." Monsieur de Vouillé now bravely led the way into the dining-room. The curiosity of the guests and the uneasiness of the mistress of the house were all the more excited by this prolonged absence. So, when the door of the dining-room opened all eyes turned to the new arrivals. Whatever difficulties there may have been in playing the parts they had thus unexpectedly assumed, none of the actors were at all disconcerted. "Dear," said the count to his wife, "I have often spoken to you of my cousin in Toulouse--"