a fool too. Doubtless the lady had in reserve
for him some exquisite flower of love, which he lost, as he well
deserved--the puppy!

But here am I running on as though I had not a great piece of news to
tell you. My father is certainly going to represent our master the King
at Madrid. I say _our_ master, for I shall make part of the embassy. My
mother wishes to remain here, and my father will take me so as to have
some woman with him.

My dear, this seems to you, no doubt, very simple, but there are horrors
behind it, all the same: in a fortnight I have probed the secrets of the
house. My mother would accompany my father to Madrid if he would take
M. de Canalis as a secretary to the embassy. But the King appoints
the secretaries; the Duke dare neither annoy the King, who hates to be
opposed, nor vex my mother; and the wily diplomat believes he has cut
the knot by leaving the Duchess here. M. de Canalis, who is the great
poet of the day, is the young man who cultivates my mother's society,
and who no doubt studies diplomacy with her from three o'clock to five.
Diplomacy must be a fine subject, for he is as regular as a gambler on
the Stock Exchange.

The Duc de Rhetore, our elder brother, solemn, cold, and whimsical,
would be extinguished by his father at Madrid, therefore he remains in
Paris. Miss Griffith has found out also that Alphonse is in love with a
ballet-girl at the Opera. How is it possible to fall in love with legs
and pirouettes? We have noticed that my brother comes to the theatre
only when Tullia dances there; he applauds the steps of this creature,
and then goes out. Two ballet-girls in a family are, I fancy, more
destructive than the plague. My second brother is with his regiment, and
I have not yet seen him. Thus it comes about that I have to act as
the Antigone of His Majesty's ambassador. Perhaps I may get married in
Spain, and perhaps my father's idea is a marriage there without dowry,
after the pattern of yours with this broken-down guard of honor. My
father asked if I would go with him, and offered me the use of his
Spanish master.

"Spain, the country for castles in the air!" I cried. "Perhaps you hope
that it may mean marriages for me!"

For sole reply he honored me with a meaning look. For some days he has
amused himself with teasing me at lunch; he watches me, and I dissemble.
In this way I have played with him cruelly as father and ambassador _in
petto_. Hadn't he taken me for a fool? He