"Yes, the princess is very fond of monsieur le duc, and she is not the only one who--"

"Give me a cloak," interrupted her mistress, "the night is chilly."

"Has madame given her orders for the twentieth of the month?" went on the persistent maid.

"What orders?"

"Has madame forgotten that her marriage takes place a week from to-day?"

"What! a week from to-day?--so soon!"

"Madame fixed the date for May 20, and this is May 12--"

"If I said the twentieth, I suppose it must be on the twentieth--give me my fan."

The maid brought a collection of magnificent fans and placed them before her mistress to allow her to make a choice.

"How singular," murmured the countess, half to herself, as she picked out a veritable Watteau from the rich collection; "I am young and free, and abhor constraint, yet I have chosen a master."

"A master!" exclaimed Katinka. "Why, the duke is so good and kind, madame! You will make whatever you wish of him."

"I shall never make an agreeable man of him; and yet, I shall marry him. Ah! my good aunt, your advice may cause me to commit a great folly," she added, half laughing, half serious, as she gazed mechanically at the mischievous little G.o.d of love on her fan. "I made a blind choice among men equal in rank and riches, all so mediocre and uninteresting that it mattered not which I chose. This was the motive of my preference for M. de Riancourt, Katinka. Besides, although marriage has its inconveniences, widowhood has still greater ones. So, it is the better to marry, after all; it saves the trouble of wondering what we shall do."

Having thus summarily settled this question, Countess Zomaloff proceeded to the drawing-room, where she found her aunt and the duke awaiting her.

Princess Wileska was a tall, distingue woman, with powdered hair and imposing presence, who presented a striking contrast to the meagre personage engaged in conversation with her. The Duke de Riancourt was a small, nervous man of thirty years or thereabouts, with a sanctimonious, unctuous mien, shifting eyes and long, smooth hair, carefully parted near the middle of the forehead, and a rigidity of movement that showed great empire over himself.

As the countess entered, he advanced toward her slowly, bowed low and raised her pretty hand to his lips with respectful courtesy; then, straightening himself up, he gazed at her for a moment as if dazzled, and cried, admiringly: "Ah! countess, I have never seen these diamonds! I don't believe you could find their equal anywhere.

Heavens! how beautiful, how magnificent they are!"

"Really, my dear duke," rejoined the countess, with well feigned embarra.s.sment, "I am much confused--that is, for the jeweler who sold them to me--one could never be more gallant than you; and since these diamonds cause you so much tender emotion, inspire such gracious compliments, such ingenious flattery, I can do no less than confide to you the charming name of the bewitching lapidary--his name is _Ezechiel Rabotautencraff_, and he resides in Frankfort."

While the amazed duke was searching a reply to this sarcastic sally, the princess gave a reproachful glance to her niece; then, turning to the discomfited n.o.bleman with a forced smile, said playfully:

"How much Foedora does like to tease you, my dear duke. This is her way of showing her affection to those she loves."

"I will humbly confess, my dear princess," said the duke, anxious to repair his awkward blunder, "that I was so dazzled by those magnificent stones that, for a moment, I forgot to render homage to the charms of the wearer. But--but--may not one be dazzled by the sun while gazing at a charming flower?"

"I find your comparison of the sunstroke and the flower so gallant and to the point," retorted the malicious young woman, "that I am tempted to believe it was this very same sunstroke that so outrageously withered these poor flowers," and a gay ripple of laughter broke from her lips, as she pointed to the faded blossoms sent by the duke that evening.

The unfortunate man flushed to the roots of his hair, while the princess frowned at her irrepressible niece.

"Pray offer your arm to my aunt, my dear duke," resumed the countess, totally indifferent to the divers emotions she had caused.

"I promised the emba.s.sadress de Sardaigne I would come early, as she is to present me to a relative, and, as you know, we must first visit that enchanted palace you spoke of, in all its details. This is an odd time for such a visit, it is true; but I admit I have a weakness or, rather, a pa.s.sion, for anything odd. Originality is such a rare, charming thing!"

Preceding her aunt and the duke, the bewitching countess ran lightly down the wide stairs of the elegantly furnished house she had rented in the Rue de Rivoli, while in search of the mansion she wished to purchase in Paris.

On that evening the duke was to take his friends out in his own carriage; a very permissible liberty, since the bans of his marriage with the countess had already been published. After a few moments of waiting at the door of the mansion, the aunt and niece saw an enormous yellow landau advancing toward them, drawn by two emaciated horses mercilessly lashed by a coachman in red and blue livery.

"Why--this is not your carriage?" gasped the countess, gazing at the duke in amazement as the footman opened the _portiere_ of the vehicle.

"Certainly, madame," he replied. "And what has become of that pretty blue victoria, with the dapple grays, you placed at our disposal yesterday morning?"

"Under the present condition of affairs, my dear countess, I may as well make a clean breast of it," rejoined the duke, with touching _abandon_. "That I may not fatigue my valuable horses--for they did cost me enormously--I hire a carriage for the evening. This is a great point of economy, for it is always a risk to take out a valuable turnout at night."

"You are perfectly right, my dear duke," the princess hastened to say, fearing a new sarcasm from her niece; and, without further ado, she entered the heavy, lumbering thing, leaning on the arm of her escort.

The duke then offered his hand to the countess to a.s.sist her in her turn; but she stopped with one dainty foot resting on the last step, and peered curiously within.

"My dear aunt," she said sweetly, "will you be kind enough to examine the carriage well?"

"Why, my dear," asked the princess navely.

"Because I am afraid some freckled, red-headed miss, or some fat city merchant may have been forgotten in some obscure corner of this thing.

These worthy people usually drive out in family parties in just such equipages, and I have a horrible fear of finding some of them under the seats."

"Really, Foedora, I fail to understand you," returned the princess, angrily, while her niece sank in the seat beside her with a laugh.

"You are absurdly severe toward M. de Riancourt--what can you be thinking of?"

"I want to cure him of his meanness and impudence," retorted the countess, coolly. "Could I better prove my interest in him?"

At that moment the duke entered the carriage and took his seat opposite the princess and her niece. Though he seemingly endured with the most Christianly patience all the railleries of the young woman who possessed all kinds of precious mines, the furtive glance he cast on her now and then, and the contraction of his thin lips, betrayed the rancour that filled his heart and foreboded no good for the future.

"To the Ramon mansion," he ordered the footman, who stood at the door.

"Beg pardon, monsieur, but I don't know where it is," replied the man, respectfully.

"At the end of the _Cours-la-Reine_, in the direction of the quartier _Jean-Gonjan_," explained the duke.

"Monsieur means that large mansion which has been in course of construction for so many years?"

"That very place," a.s.sented the duke.

The footman closed the carriage door, gave his instructions to the coachman, who lashed his jaded horses, and the lumbering landau started in the direction of _Cours-la-Reine_, where the marvelous Saint-Ramon mansion was situated.

CHAPTER XVII.

The heavy vehicle rolled on so slowly, that a pedestrian walking in the same direction, easily kept up with it through the whole length of the _Cours-la-Reine_, although he seemed anything but nimble footed.

He was poorly dressed and leaned painfully on his stick; his long beard was white, as well as his hair and bushy eyebrows, and the dark color of his wrinkled face gave him the appearance of a mulatto.

As the landau approached the Saint-Ramon mansion, however, the coachman was forced to take his place in the long procession of carriages going in the same direction, thus permitting the pedestrian to gain a certain distance ahead.

The old mulatto continued his way slowly to the entrance of abroad avenue, enc.u.mbered with a long line of carriages and almost dazzling with bright colored lights, and paused in amazement at the gate.