hoice Counsellor found himself with the Countess on a
raised dais at one end of the room, while Mademoiselle Selpdorf and
Rallywood formed the corresponding couple at the other end. Between them
the dance proceeded, thus leaving the respective couples virtually
isolated for a few minutes.

'It was delightful of you to come to our little party to-night,' the
Countess was saying to her companion. 'Now that you have come to see me
here, can I not induce you to come also to Sagan next week? We are going
out there for a few days. Do think of it.'

'You are too kind, my dear madame, but an old man like myself may be out
of place.'

The Countess sighed a little.

'Of course you are not at all old,' she said, shaking her head at him,
'though you are fond of playing the part. But if you want to be old you
can be old in good company at the Castle, for the Duke will be
there--you know he is a cousin of ours.'

Counsellor looked back into the smiling blue eyes. Most men would have
succumbed to their innocent flattery. To the Major they only suggested
an infinite capacity for foolishness.

'Don't you think we could exchange our Duke for another, a more
interesting one?' she added, misled perhaps by his look. 'Duke Gustave
is so wrapped up in his stupid gambling, and altogether there are many
things----' her speech tailed off inconsequently into a confused
silence.

'Wanting? Certainly! For example, we have no Duchess,' said Counsellor
gallantly. 'We need a pretty Duchess. But is it not possible that Maasau
may yet boast the most adorable Duchess in Europe?'

Countess Isolde started and flushed like a pleased child, and her eyes
lit up as she laid her fan on Counsellor's stout knee with a
confidential impulsive gesture.

'But England does not like the idea of pretty Duchesses?' she ventured
reproachfully. 'And you are only a flatterer after all!'

The Major raised his bushy white eyebrows.

'Have I that reputation?'

'No, they say you are terribly frank;' then a design to sound this
difficult and usually unapproachable diplomat came into her irrational
head. Older men than he had been vanquished by her beauty ere now.
'England has not yet recognized my husband's claim as next heir,' she
whispered. 'Major Counsellor, do you think your nation could ever be
brought to recognize me as Duchess?'

'If the occasion arose,' answered the wily old soldier softly, 'I do not
see--speaking as a man--how any request of yours could