g about right and left, seeking
in the air something which he believed to be present, a subtle and
intangible something like the trace of a perfume or the invisible track
left by a bird in its flight. You heard the crackling of the wood in
the fireplace, the rustle of papers hurriedly turned over, the indolent
voice of the duke indicating in a sentence, always precise and clear, a
reply to a letter of four pages, and the respectful monosyllables of
the _attache_--"Yes, M. le Ministre," "No, M. le Ministre"; then the
scraping of a rebellious and heavy pen. Out of doors the swallows were
twittering merrily over the water, the sound of a clarinet was wafted
from somewhere near the bridges.

"It is impossible," suddenly said the Minister of State, rising. "Take
that away, Lartigues; you must return to-morrow. I cannot write. I am
too cold. See, doctor; feel my hands--one would think that they had just
come out of a pail of iced water. For the last two days my whole body
has been the same. Isn't it too absurd, in this weather!"

"I am not surprised," muttered the Irishman, in a sullen, curt tone,
rarely heard from that honeyed personage.

The door had closed upon the young _attache_, bearing off his papers
with majestic dignity, but very happy, I imagine, to feel himself free
and to be able to stroll for an hour or two, before returning to the
Ministry, in the Tuileries gardens, full of spring frocks and pretty
girls sitting near the still empty chairs round the band, under the
chestnut-trees in flower, through which from root to summit there ran
the great thrill of the month when nests are built. The _attache_ was
certainly not frozen.

Jenkins, silently, examined his patient, sounded him, and tapped his
chest; then, in the same rough tone which might be explained by his
anxious devotion, the annoyance of the doctor who sees his orders
transgressed:

"Ah, now, my dear duke, what sort of life have you been living lately?"

He knew from the gossip of the antechamber--in the case of his regular
clients the doctor did not disdain this--he knew that the duke had a new
favourite, that this caprice of recent date possessed him, excited him
in an extraordinary measure, and the fact, taken together with
other observations made elsewhere, had implanted in Jenkins's mind a
suspicion, a mad desire to know the name of this new mistress. It
was this that he was trying to read on the pale face of his patient,
attempting to fathom t