provoked at having arrived first.

"Fie, Monsieur!" she cried, "it is very bad to make--I will not say a
princess--but a lady--wait in this way."

"Wait?" said Coconnas, "what an idea! I'll wager, on the contrary, that
we are ahead of time."

"I was."

"Well! and I too; it cannot be more than ten o'clock at the latest."

"Well! my note said half-past nine."

"Therefore I left the Louvre at nine o'clock. I am in the service of
Monsieur le Duc d'Alencon, be it said in passing, and for this reason I
shall be obliged to leave you in an hour."

"Which pleases you, no doubt?"

"No, indeed! considering the fact that Monsieur d'Alencon is an
ill-tempered and capricious master; moreover, if I am to be found fault
with, I prefer to have it done by pretty lips like yours rather than by
such sullen ones as his."

"Ah!" said the duchess, "that is a little better. You say, then, that
you left the Louvre at nine o'clock."

"Yes, and with every idea of coming directly here, when at the corner of
the Rue de Grenelle I saw a man who looked like La Mole."

"Good! La Mole again."

"Always, with or without permission."

"Brutal man!"

"Ah!" said Coconnas, "we are going to begin our complimentary speeches
again."

"Not at all; but finish your story."

"I was not the one who wanted to tell it. It was you who asked me why I
was late."

"Yes; was it my place to arrive first?"

"Well, you are not looking for any one."

"You are growing tiresome, my dear friend; but go on. At the corner of
the Rue de Grenelle you saw a man who looked like La Mole--But what is
that on your doublet--blood?"

"Yes, and here is more which was probably sprinkled over me as he fell."

"You had a fight?"

"I should think so."

"On account of your La Mole?"

"On whose account do you think I would fight? For a woman?"

"I thank you!"

"So I followed this man who had the impudence to look like my friend. I
joined him in the Rue Coquilliere, I overtook him, and stared into his
face under the light from a shop. But it was not La Mole."

"Good! that was well done."

"Yes, but he did not think so. 'Monsieur,' said I to him, 'you are an
ass to take it upon yourself to resemble from afar my friend Monsieur de
la Mole, who is an accomplished cavalier; while on nearer view one can
easily perceive that you are nothing but a vagrant.' Whereupon he drew
his sword, and I mine. At the third pass he fell down, sprinkling me
with his blood."

"Bu