lly of his
errand. What under the sun had he to say to the duchess, after all?
Wherein would it profit him to tell her that the Bellegardes were
traitors and that the old lady, into the bargain was a murderess? He
seemed morally to have turned a sort of somersault, and to find things
looking differently in consequence. He felt a sudden stiffening of
his will and quickening of his reserve. What in the world had he been
thinking of when he fancied the duchess could help him, and that it
would conduce to his comfort to make her think ill of the Bellegardes?
What did her opinion of the Bellegardes matter to him? It was only a
shade more important than the opinion the Bellegardes entertained of
her. The duchess help him--that cold, stout, soft, artificial woman help
him?--she who in the last twenty minutes had built up between them a
wall of polite conversation in which she evidently flattered herself
that he would never find a gate. Had it come to that--that he was asking
favors of conceited people, and appealing for sympathy where he had
no sympathy to give? He rested his arms on his knees, and sat for some
minutes staring into his hat. As he did so his ears tingled--he had come
very near being an ass. Whether or no the duchess would hear his story,
he wouldn't tell it. Was he to sit there another half hour for the
sake of exposing the Bellegardes? The Bellegardes be hanged! He got up
abruptly, and advanced to shake hands with his hostess.

"You can't stay longer?" she asked, very graciously.

"I am afraid not," he said.

She hesitated a moment, and then, "I had an idea you had something
particular to say to me," she declared.

Newman looked at her; he felt a little dizzy; for the moment he seemed
to be turning his somersault again. The little Italian prince came to
his help: "Ah, madam, who has not that?" he softly sighed.

"Don't teach Mr. Newman to say fadaises," said the duchess. "It is his
merit that he doesn't know how."

"Yes, I don't know how to say fadaises," said Newman, "and I don't want
to say anything unpleasant."

"I am sure you are very considerate," said the duchess with a smile; and
she gave him a little nod for good-by with which he took his departure.

Once in the street, he stood for some time on the pavement, wondering
whether, after all, he was not an ass not to have discharged his pistol.
And then again he decided that to talk to any one whomsoever about
the Bellegardes would be extremely di