but de Crucis was on his way to
Germany, bound on some business which could not be deferred. Odo, aware
of the renewed activity of the Jesuits, supposed that this business was
connected with the flight of the French refugees, many of whom were gone
to Coblentz; but on this point the abate was silent. Of the state of
affairs in France he spoke openly and despondently. The immoderate haste
with which the reforms had been granted filled him with fears for the
future. Odo knew that Crescenti shared these fears, and the judgment of
these two men, with whom he differed on fundamental principles, weighed
with him far more than the opinions of the party he was supposed to
represent. But he was in the case of many greater sovereigns of his day.
He had set free the waters of reform, and the frail bark of his
authority had been torn from its moorings and swept headlong into the
central current.

The next morning, to his surprise, the Duchess sent one of her gentlemen
to ask an audience. Odo at once replied that he would wait on her
Highness; and a few moments later he was ushered into his wife's closet.

She had just left her toilet, and was still in the morning negligee worn
during that prolonged and public ceremonial. Freshly perfumed and
powdered, her eyes bright, her lips set in a nervous smile, she
curiously recalled the arrogant child who had snatched her spaniel away
from him years ago in that same room. And was she not that child, after
all? Had she ever grown beyond the imperious instincts of her youth? It
seemed to him now that he had judged her harshly in the first months of
their marriage. He had felt a momentary impatience when he had tried to
force her roving impulses into the line of his own endeavour: it was
easier to view her leniently now that she had almost passed out of his
life.

He wondered why she had sent for him. Some dispute with her household,
doubtless; a quarrel with a servant, even--or perhaps some sordid
difficulty with her creditors. But she began in a new key.

"Your Highness," she said, "is not given to taking my advice."

Odo looked at her in surprise. "The opportunity is not often accorded
me," he replied with a smile.

Maria Clementina made an impatient gesture; then her face softened.
Contradictory emotions flitted over it like the reflections cast by a
hurrying sky. She came close to him and then drew away and seated
herself in the high-backed chair where she had throned when he first s