older season, but it was a sable with a sprinkling of isolated white
hairs most peculiar and a present from her granduncle. She tottered and
seemed weak, for she had concluded that an affection of illness would
aid her re-entrance. As Hedwig extinguished the lamp, she sank into an
arm-chair. She curiously glanced around and inhaled with a questioning
flutter of the nostrils the lasting odor of cigars and Burgundy, which
the air retained. In this gloomy apartment where she had often sat
alone, sure not to be disturbed, the suggestion of uproarious jollity
hurt her dignity. A singular way to express sorrow and shame at the loss
of a wife by calling in boon companions! This did not seem like Felix
Clemenceau, sober and austere, thus to drown care in champagne.

"Are you alone, girl?" she inquired, looking round with a powerful
impression that the house had unexpected inmates.

"Yes. No one is up yet in the house," responded Hedwig, sharing her
mistress' uneasiness, though from a less indefinite reason; "at all
events, nobody has come down yet. But how did you see that it was I who
came in here before the shades were drawn up?"

"Well, I had made a little peep-hole to see what my husband and his
fellow conspirator were about, in the time before they shut themselves
up in their studio. But, if it is my turn to put questions," she went on
with some offended dignity, "how is it that the back door is bolted as
well as barred and that I have had to sneak in like a malefactor?"

"If you please, madame, it is the rule to be very careful about
fastening up, since you went away."

"Oh, on the principle of locking the stable-door when the steed--"

"Oh! they fear the loss of something which, without offense, I may say,
they esteem more highly than you."

Hedwig answered without even a little impertinence and the other did not
resent what sounded discourteous.

"Then they do not lock up to keep me out?" she questioned.

"It might be a little bit that way, too."

"It is a new habit. Did the master suggest it?"

"Not the master altogether, madame, but his partner."

"Eh! do you mean Antonino? Monsieur had already lifted him up to be his
associate, his confidant, his friend, to the exclusion of his lawful
friend and confidant, his wife--and now, does he make him his partner?"

"No, madame; though he has a good fat share in the enterprise. It is M.
Daniels who found the funds for the new company in which the master is
engage