was a man of
some forty years of age, born into my father's service, and since become
my intendant, factotum, majordomo, and generalissimo of my regiment of
servants and my establishments both in Paris and at Bardelys.

We had been to the wars together ere I had cut my wisdom teeth, and thus
had he come to love me. There was nothing this invaluable servant could
not do. At baiting or shoeing a horse, at healing a wound, at roasting
a capon, or at mending a doublet, he was alike a master, besides
possessing a score of other accomplishments that do not now occur to me,
which in his campaigning he had acquired. Of late the easy life in
Paris had made him incline to corpulency, and his face was of a pale,
unhealthy fullness.

To-night, as he assisted me to undress, it wore an expression of supreme
woe.

"Monseigneur is going into Languedoc?" he inquired sorrowfully. He
always called me his "seigneur," as did the other of my servants born at
Bardelys.

"Knave, you have been listening," said I.

"But, monseigneur," he explained, "when Monsieur le Comte de
Chatellerault laid his wager--"

"And have I not told you, Ganymede, that when you chance to be among
my friends you should hear nothing but the words addressed to you, see
nothing but the glasses that need replenishing? But, there! We are going
into Languedoc. What of it?"

"They say that war may break out at any moment," he groaned; "that
Monsieur le Duc de Montmorency is receiving reenforcements from Spain,
and that he intends to uphold the standard of Monsieur and the rights of
the province against the encroachments of His Eminence the Cardinal."

"So! We are becoming politicians, eh, Ganymede? And how shall all this
concern us? Had you listened more attentively, you had learnt that we go
to Languedoc to seek a wife, and not to concern ourselves with Cardinals
and Dukes. Now let me sleep ere the sun rises."

On the morrow I attended the levee, and I applied to His Majesty for
leave to absent myself. But upon hearing that it was into Languedoc I
went, he frowned inquiry. Trouble enough was his brother already making
in that province. I explained that I went to seek a wife, and deeming
all subterfuge dangerous, since it might only serve to provoke him when
later he came to learn the lady's name, I told him--withholding yet all
mention of the wager--that I fostered the hope of making Mademoiselle de
Lavedan my marquise.

Deeper came the line between his brows a