emence and impatience.

The gray-haired porter opened the door.

"How is the duchess, Leblanc? Has she risen? Send some one to let her
know that I have arrived," he exclaimed, hurriedly.

_"Helas!_ Monseigneur!" answered the venerable old servant, in
a distressed tone.

"What do you mean? Is the duchess ill? I got a letter from her yesterday,
in which she said she was quite well. It met me at Marseilles. She
continues well. I hope? Why don't you speak?" impatiently demanded
the duke.

"_Mille pardons_. Monseigneur; but madame has gone," sadly replied
Leblanc.

"What do you say?" exclaimed the duke, discrediting the evidence of his
own ears.

"_Mille pardons_, Monsieur le Duc, Madame la Duchesse has gone."

"Gone! the duchess gone!" exclaimed the duke, in amazement, not unmixed
with incredulity.

"Oui; Monseigneur."

"Gone! the duchess gone! Where?"

"_Miserable_ that I am, Monseigneur, I do not know. I cannot tell.
Will Monsieur le Duc deign to consult the coachman who drove Madame la
Duchesse in the carriage when she left the house last night, not to
return. He can probably give Monseigneur some information," respectfully
suggested the old porter.

"Send Dubourg to me in the library, then," said the duke, as he strode
down the hall, full of vague alarm, but far from suspecting the fatal
truth.

Soon the coachman came to him in the library, and in answer to his
questions told how he had driven the duchess alone to the railway station
to catch the night express for Marseilles.

"The night express for Marseilles! Then the foolish child was going to
meet me, and must have passed me on the road!" said the duke to himself,
with a strange blending of flattered affection and anxious fears.

"That will do, Dubourg. The duchess went down to the seaport to meet me
on the steamer, and we have missed each other on the road. It is a pity,
but it cannot be helped!" said the duke dismissing his coachman by a wave
of his hand.

The man bowed and retired.

"Silly child, to go and do such an absurd and indiscreet thing as that!
I would go down after her by the next train only I should be sure to pass
her on the road again; for she will hasten immediately back when she
finds that I have arrived at Marseilles and left for Paris," said the
duke to himself, as he rang for his valet and retired to his own room to
dress for breakfast.

But there, on the bureau, he found a letter addressed to him in the
handwriting of