care--is vastly obliged to them for the honour they have done
him, but would decline on account of his age and infirmities. You
know how to phrase a decent refusal."

"Pardon me," said I, "but I might give them that answer till
doomsday and never content them. They have not travelled many
thousand miles to be put off by hearsay evidence. Nothing will
satisfy them but an interview with your father himself.

"It is impossible," she said sharply.

"Then we must expect the renewed attentions of our American
friends. They will wait till they see him."

She rose and paced the room.

"They must go," she repeated many times. "If they see him sober
he will accept with joy, and we shall be the laughing-stock of
the world. I tell you it cannot be. I alone know how immense is
the impossibility. He cannot afford to lose the last rags of his
dignity, the last dregs of his ease. They must not see him. I
will speak with them myself."

"They will be honoured, madame, but I do not think they will be
convinced. They are what we call in my land 'men of business.'
They will not be content till they get the Count's reply from his
own lips.

A new Duchess seemed to have arisen, a woman of quick action and
sharp words.