the sound of a pleased, excited giggling. I love to hear such sounds; they make me laugh myself, for joy that this old world, in spite of everything, holds so much merriment; and to their jovial lullaby I fell asleep,
Moreover—the duchess teaching discretion! There can have been nothing like it since Baby Charles and Steenie conversed within the hearing of King James! But, then discretion has two meanings—whereof the one is “Do it not,” and the other “Tell it not.” Considering of this ambiguity, I acquitted the duchess of hypocrisy.
At ten o’clock the next morning we got rid of my dear friend Gustave de Berensac. Candor compels me to put the statement in that form; for the gravity which had fallen upon him the night before endured till the morning, and he did not flinch from administering something very like a lecture to his hostess. His last words were an invitation to me to get into the carriage and start with him. When I suavely declined, he told me that I should regret it. It comforts me to think that his prophecy, though more than once within an ace of the most ample fulfillment, yet in the end was set at naught by the events which followed.
Gustave rolled down the hill, the duchess sighed relief.
“Now,” said she, “we can enjoy ourselves fora few hours, Mr. Aycon. And after that—solitude!”
I was really very sorry for the duchess. Evidently society and gayety were necessary as
