"How inquisitive he is!" said the viscount, addressing M. d'Harville; and then, turning to the duke, "I am anxious to wean myself gradually from Paris, as I am soon to quit it." "Ah, yes, the beautiful idea of attaching you to the legation from France to Gerolstein! Pray leave off those silly ideas of diplomacy! You will never go. My wife says so, everybody says the same." "I assure you that Madame de Lucenay is mistaken, as well as all the rest of the world." "She told you, in my presence, that it was a folly." "How many have I committed in my life?" "Yes, elegant, charming follies, true;--such as people said would ruin you in your Sardanapalian magnificences,--that I admit. But to go and bury yourself alive in such a court,--at Gerolstein! What an idea! Psha! It is a folly, an absurdity; and you have too much good sense to commit absurdities." "Take care, my dear Lucenay. When you abuse this German court, you will get up a quarrel with D'Harville, the intimate friend of the grand duke regnant, who, moreover, received me with the best possible grace at the embassy, where I was presented to him." "Really, my dear Henry," said M. d'Harville, "if you knew the grand duke as I know him, you would understand that Saint-Remy could have no repugnance to passing some time at Gerolstein." "I believe you, marquis, although they do say that he is very haughty and very peculiar, your grand duke; but that will not hinder a don like Saint-Remy, the finest sifting of the finest flour, from being unable to live anywhere but in Paris. It is in Paris only that he is duly appreciated." The other guests of M. d'Harville now arrived, when Joseph entered, and said a few words in a low voice to his master. "Gentlemen," said the marquis, "will you allow me?--it is my wife's jeweller, who has brought some diamonds to select for her,--a surprise. You understand that, Lucenay? We are husbands of the old sort, you and I." "Ah, _pardieu_! If it is a surprise you mean," shouted the duke, "my wife gave me one yesterday, and a famous one too!" "Some magnificent present?" "She asked me for a hundred thousand francs (4,000_l._)." "And you are such a magnifico--you--" "Lent them to her; they are advanced as mortgage on her Arnouville estate. Right reckonings make good friends,--but that's by the by. To lend in two hours a hundred thousand francs to a friend who requires that sum is what I call pretty, but rare. Is it not prodigal, you who are a connoisseur in loans?" said the duke, laughingly, to Saint-Remy, little thinking of the cutting purport of his words. In spite of his effrontery, the viscount blushed slightly, and then replied, with composure: "A hundred thousand francs?--that is immense! What could a woman ever want with such a sum as a hundred thousand francs? As for us men, that is quite a different matter."