party, assuring them, as he did the colonel, that he had taken
particular care that hunters should be provided for them. The colonel
invited the three lovers to breakfast on the morning of the start.
Canalis then began to put into execution a plan that he had been
maturing in his own mind for the last few days; namely, to quietly
reconquer Modeste, and throw over the duchess, La Briere, and the
duke. A graduate of diplomacy could hardly remain stuck in the
position in which he found himself. On the other hand La Briere had
come to the resolution of bidding Modeste an eternal farewell. Each
suitor was therefore on the watch to slip in a last word, like the
defendant's counsel to the court before judgment is pronounced; for
all felt that the three weeks' struggle was approaching its
conclusion. After dinner on the evening before the start was to be
made, the colonel had taken his daughter by the arm and made her feel
the necessity of deciding.

"Our position with the d'Herouville family will be quite intolerable
at Rosembray," he said to her. "Do you mean to be a duchess?"

"No, father," she answered.

"Then do you love Canalis?"

"No, papa, a thousand times no!" she exclaimed with the impatience of
a child.

The colonel looked at her with a sort of joy.

"Ah, I have not influenced you," cried the true father, "and I will
now confess that I chose my son-in-law in Paris when, having made him