ble relief to the day's monotony. What a precious
privilege for them, proud as they were already of dating their letters
from Mousseaux, to be able to send to all their dear friends, who were
not there, accounts of an unpublished play by Danjou, read by Danjou
himself, and then next winter to be in a position to say when the
rehearsals were going on, 'Oh, Danjou's play! I know it; he read it to
us at the castle.'

As the company rose, full of excitement at this good news, the Duchess
went towards Paul, and taking his arm with her graceful air of command
said, 'Come for a turn on the gallery; it is stifling here.' The air
was heavy even at the height of the gallery, for there rose from
the steaming river a mist of heat, which overspread and blurred the
irregular green outlines of its banks and of its low floating islands.
She led the young man away from the smokers right to the end of the
furthest bay, and then clasping his hand said, 'So it was for me; it was
all for me.'

'Yes, Duchess, for you.'

And he pursed his lips as he added, 'And presently we shall have another
try.'

'You must not say that, you naughty boy.'

She stopped, as an inquisitive footstep came towards them. Danjou!'

'Yes, Duchess.'

'My fan... on the dining-room table... would you be so kind?...' When
he was some way off, she said, 'I will not have it, Paul. In the first
place, the creature is not worth fighting. Ah, if we were alone--if I
could tell you!' The fierceness of her tone and the clenching of her
hands betrayed a rage that amazed Paul Astier. After a month he had
hoped to find her calmer than this. It was a disappointment, and it
checked the explosion, 'I love you--I have always loved you,' which was
to have been forced from him at the first confidential interview. He
was only telling the story of the duel, in which she was very much
interested, when the Academician brought her fan. 'Well fetched, zebra!'
she said by way of thanks. With a little pout he answered in the same
strain but a lowered voice, 'A zebra on promotion, you know!'

'What, wanting to be raised already!' She tapped him with her fan as she
spoke, and anxious to put him in a good temper for his reading, let
him escort her back to the drawing-room, where his manuscript was lying
ready on a dainty card-table in the full light of a high window partly
open, showing the flower-garden and the groups of great trees.

[Illustration: Danjou read like a genuine 'Player'